Three Delivery Sinister Balls of Fire
by crystalquirt
Summary: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested by police for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard who blames Tobey for getting kicked off the police force years earlier, causes more trouble . . .
1. Chapter 1

THREE DELIVERY - Sinister Balls of Fire

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

Chapter 1

Violence, angst, disaster. Tobey torture. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and any similarity between my secondary characters and anyone living or dead is completely unintentional, except those who already know I was describing them.

*don't take as medical advice – if you think you might be hyperventilating get real medical attention. I assume Sid knows Tobey hyperventilates sometimes [in my world] and already knows what to do.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard who blames Tobey for getting kicked off the police force, three years earlier tries to frame him for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

Introduction: It all started with a strong wish to get Tobey or Sid in handcuffs. LOL

Since Tobey has a dark past [that we don't know what it is yet] he seemed like the best fic really threatened to hurt my feelings so I felt the need to explain something.

I love cops! Really – all of my crushes have been on cops! I used to follow one around at night during his shift before we would meet for coffee. One night, I followed the wrong patrol car, and learned later from my friend, that the officer I mistakenly followed had called in panicking - saying someone in a white truck was following him! Oops.

I love real life cops, TV cops [fictional] – I love cops wherever cops can be found. Except, I don't like the TV show "Cops." I like the cops but not the reality of the people they have to deal with. I find watching the incredible ignorance of the people they have to deal with everyday extremely disturbing.

It gives me major "our society and our whole world is doomed," syndrome, and if I see even part of the show, I hide in a dark corner for days. I have huge amount of respect for police officers.

In this story I needed a bad guy with 'power' not magical. I didn't want to write about a 'bad' cop, but went with an ex-cop – someone who already couldn't make it as a real cop and got fired.

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"BARNEY! Hurry up and get out here!" Even when he was happy and excited about something, Mr. Wu sounded angry. He found a used Wrestling mat in a yard sale and bought it for Barney. It was already spread out in the garden and Nana, Sue, Sid and Tobey were already there to watch the first match.

Barney pulled his wrestling uniform on. He wiggled his hips while he pulled it up to get it to ride 'just right' before going to the garden. He couldn't figure why on earth his dad wanted to take a picture of him in his uniform in the garden, but he was used to doing what his dad said without a lot of questions. The answers often didn't make sense.

When he came out, he saw everyone was there, and his dad was in his old uniform too! It was a wee bit tight but somehow he got it on. Mr. Wu struck a pose when he saw him and Barney noticed that he was standing on a 'regulation' wrestling mat!

"Wow Dad! Where did you get this? This is great! What's the occasion?" Barney ran over and got on it. He jumped up and down enjoying the 'feel'.

"Come on Barney – Let's go! WRESTLE!" Mr. Wu slammed Barney and knocked him down on the mat. It took no more effort on his part than to remain still with Barney stuck under his belly for him to declare him 'pinned'. Barney could hear Sue chuckling.

"Hey I'm a little out-matched here wouldn't you say? Let me wrestle Tobey!" Barney looked over at him and grinned. Tobey said 'sure' and jumped up.

Barney stopped him – "No-no-no! You can't be on the mat with all the studded leather and those shoes. You'll rip holes in it."

"Oh man." Tobey reluctantly took off his belt and shoes and tossed them to Sid.

"Wrists too!"

"No way! They are like part of me man!"

"Hey come on, do you want to try and beat me or not?"

"Ok." Tobey very reluctantly took off the wrist bands and tossed them to Sid. Nana and Sue both looked at each other. Sid whispered "Why wouldn't he want to take them off? He's such a dork."

"Sid, be nice. I'm sure he has his reasons – he always wears them- it probably feels weird without having them on." Sue was feeling protective.

Tobey grinned at Barney, Barney grinned at Tobey they went low and started pushing on each other. Tobey reached under and grabbed Barney's leg but he couldn't budge it. So he tried tickling – Barney giggled as he grabbed Tobey's leg and put him on his back. Mr. Wu called "Pinned!"

"No fair! Let's go again!" Tobey smiled and faced Barney. This time when they went at each other, Barney leaned to the side just enough to get a good hold on Tobey's shoulder and thigh. He took a step and pushed Tobey down on his stomach on the mat. Tobey started to twist out from under him, but Barney put his hands on both of Tobey's wrists. He pressed one down on the mat and twisted the other behind his back.

Tobey thrashed violently and made sounds that sounded like a trapped animal. At first they all thought Tobey was just trying to get out of it, but then he screamed loudly, his voice cracked and he already sounded out of breath.

Tobey screamed, "NO! Get OFF!" Since Tobey sounded serious Barney loosened up, afraid he was hurting him. Before he could get off him though, Tobey twisted and kicked him in the stomach sending him into the fountain with the fish!

"Hey, no fair! There's no kicking in wrestling!" Barney yelled. Mr. Wu yelled 'disqualified', but Tobey was already running for the back door. Sid went after him with his stuff.

"He was no fun – how about you Sue?" Sue agreed and took her belt off and handed it to Nana. She felt giddy – wrestling with Barney! Sue was blushing already!

Sid found Tobey out front sitting on the sidewalk next to his bike. He was so upset, it sounded like he was hyperventilating.

"Tobey, what happened? Are you ok?" Tobey didn't answer him. He was breathing through his mouth too fast and shallowly to really be getting oxygen and he looked frightened. Sid handed him his wrist bands and belt, but his hands were shaking so bad he couldn't get the bands snapped on his wrists. Tobey gave up and put his head back to try to catch his breath.

Sid helped him fasten his wristbands while he spoke softly to him. "Tobey, slow your breathing, you're safe and nothing bad is going on." Tobey looked like he wanted to say something, but was still breathing too hard to form understandable words. Tobey put his head down and grabbed fistfuls of his own hair in frustration and fought even harder to breathe.

"Listen to me Tobey - breathe slower, pay attention only to your breath and my voice . . . in, out, in . . . out." After a minute of coaching, Sid saw Tobey's breath returning to normal. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah Sid, thanks." He panted. "I didn't think it would be that bad! I gotta go apologize to Barney."

"You didn't think 'what' would be that bad? What happened?"

Tobey blushed, "I guess I didn't want to lose."

"I know you don't mind losing that much – you don't react that way when you lose and I take you down."

"Hey, I win sometimes!"

Sid made a face and waited for him to continue.

"It's just I can't stand having my wrists held, and when he pulled my arm behind my back I guess I lost it. I felt like if I didn't get away, I might die."

"I didn't know that having your wrists held scared you so much Tobey, since when? Why do you think it makes you panic so bad?"

"I don't wanna talk about it anymore – I gotta to tell Barney I'm sorry."

"Ok then, why didn't you want to take off your wristbands? Doesn't wearing something on your wrists bother you?"

"No way, with them on my opponent can't get a good hold on my wrists!"

"Oh come on Tobey – that can't be true."

"It has worked lots of times – remember the shape shifter in the storeroom?"

"Well, I wasn't there for the whole fight you had with it, but I think it is your Kung Fu skill, instead of the wristbands."

Sid followed Tobey back out to the garden. Sue and Barney were on their third match. Sue let him win every time, and she was on her back on the mat again when they got there.

Sid could tell Sue was enjoying the 'Barney contact' a little too much and he chuckled and looked at Tobey. He thought Tobey would have some form of razzing to express, but he wasn't even watching. He was too distracted by his thoughts.

Soon it was time to open the restaurant for Sunday lunch so Barney went in to get a shower and change. Sue said she needed a shower too. Sid suggested she go get one with Barney. "You could wash his back!"

Sue punched his arm and he and Tobey roared with laughter. Barney looked confused, like he hadn't heard the whole conversation. He was almost to the back door when Tobey called for him to "Wait up."

"I'm sorry for how I reacted back there."

"No problem – maybe we can have another match later, between your deliveries!"

"You're on!" Tobey exclaimed and went to polish his bike. It was almost noon and he hadn't polished it yet that day so he was late!

Sue, Sid and Nana stayed in the garden. "Sid? Why was Tobey so upset, did he say anything?"

"Sorta. He said he didn't like his wrists held."

"Wow, he was really freaked out. Why does he wear wristbands then, I would think having something on his wrists all the time would bother him."

"I asked him about that too, but he thinks they protect him somehow. Like with them on, no one can grab his wrists."

Sue didn't want to say what she first thought, it would be too mean. "Strange." was all she said.

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It had been a very busy Sunday afternoon for deliveries and the evening got even busier. Sue, Sid and Tobey hardly even got to see each other as they came and went so Tobey's rematch with Barney never happened. When Mr. Wu finally closed it was after 1 am!

Sid yawned while they were putting their bikes and helmets away. "It's good tomorrow is "Memorial Day."

"Are you thinking the same thing I am?

"If you're thinking 'sleep 'til noon' then we are thinking alike."

"Wow, it's almost like were connected on another plane!" Sue giggled and beat her brother up the stairs.

The boys formed a line after Sue for the shower and when she finally came out, Sid said, "I told you to take your shower with Barney. Then we wouldn't have had to wait so long." Sue glared at him before she pinched his arm, and while he was distracted Tobey got in behind him and locked the door. "Hey! I was next!" Sid whined.

"You lost your place flappin' your gums in line!" Tobey yelled through the door.

When Sid finally got out of the shower and got to their bunks, he could hear Tobey breathing softly and regularly like he was already asleep. He got in bed carefully so he didn't wake him up.

Later Sid woke up. He could hear Tobey talking quietly in his sleep, but still loud enough to wake him up. "Oh man," he mumbled and rolled over with his pillow over his head.

"No-lemme go-lemme-go." Tobey repeated it a little louder and Sid moved his pillow to listen. He wondered if he was having a nightmare about the situation with Barney.

Tobey continued, "I didn't do it alone – wasn't my idea!" Sid sat up and thumped under the top bunk while he softly called Tobey. "Tobey wake up man, you're talking in your sleep."

The thump seemed to put Tobey into a different level of terror. "NO STOP! I'm not fighting!" and Tobey started screaming. Sid jumped off his bunk and hopped up on the ladder. He held Tobey's shoulders down and repeated his name softly until he stopped screaming.

Tobey soon stopped thrashing and looked at Sid. "You sure you don't have anything you need to talk about?"

"It's embarrassing, are you sure it will help." Tobey sat up.

"Come on, you know we won't tease you or anything. Well, not much." Sid messed up Tobey's hair. "Can I get sue, she cares about you and she will probably have better advice that me."

"Ok."

"We'll be right back."

"Sue, come on - Tobey's having nightmares and needs to talk."

"Awe Sid, I was sleeping so good."

"Come on maybe we can help him if we talk, it seems to have helped before."

"Ok I'm coming."

Sid went back to his room and Sue got up and found her robe before going. They all three sat on top, on Tobey's bunk.

"Tobey, do you remember what your dream was about."

"Yes, unfortunately and I've had the same dreams before, but it's been a long time." They listened quietly while he took a deep breath. "Remember when I was twelve, I got arrested?"

"Yeah, we remember. It was a really rough time for all of us. We were so worried about you." Sue was holding his hand.

Sid interrupted, "Yeah and you were released soon after, the police officer that arrested you was dismissed over something he did wrong and the charges against you dismissed – even though you were guilty. You really lucked out I guess. But you still paid for it, when you broke your arm falling out of the window. You shouldn't have tried to run from the police.

"I didn't feel like I had lucked out and I didn't tell you everything. I was dreaming about when that cop arrested me. His name was Gary something."

"What happened?" Sue asked him, leaning closer. Tobey took another deep breath and he eyes started to look wet.

"I didn't break my arm falling out the window. After Gary got the cuffs on me he twisted my arms behind my back so I couldn't move, and when he started beating on me with his baton, my arm broke. He continued to hit and kick me saying the court wouldn't be able to teach me how bad I really was as well as he could."

"We never knew. No wonder you don't like your wrists held."

"Yeah, that's why I get so freaked out sometimes about being restrained, though most of the time I have enough control to hide it pretty well. It doesn't affect me that much anymore, especially when it is someone I trust, like you guys during Nana's training. It surprised me when I reacted like that during the match with Barney."

"Oh man Tobey! That must have been really scary."

"Later I had to testify in court against that Gary guy, he had to serve a couple of months and got kicked off the police force."

"Wow, I remember when you went back to court, we thought you had to go about what you did, but it was about what he did to you. Sorry man."

"Yeah, it's ok now. But in my dreams just now I could see his face so clearly and he had me down again-I even thought I could feel my arm breaking." Tobey rubbed his arm like he was checking just to be sure.

"I'm glad you told us Tobey."

"Yeah, I won't grab your wrists anymore while were training."

"No, that's not what I want! Don't treat me differently! It's not logical for me to react like you are going to hurt me, if you just grab my wrist in training to learn a new throw or something. I have to get over this. Nana even said so."

"Nana knows?"

"She knows all of it."

Sid wrapped his fingers slowly and deliberately around Tobey's wrist and moved his hand behind his back. Tobey allowed it.

They smiled at each other and Tobey warned him, "Now don't do it just trying to get a rise out of me! I'll kick your ass."

"Ok, no worries – that was the only time!" Sid promised. "You think you can go back to sleep?"

"Yeah I'm exhausted."

Sid climbed down the ladder and flopped down on his bunk, Sue jumped down and opened the door to go back to her room, but Nana was standing right there getting ready to knock.

"Good! You're all up already! I have discovered the location of another recipe!"

Sid put his pillow over his face again. Tobey pulled the blanket over his head and made loud snoring noises. Sue was stuck with no place to hide.

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"See!" Nana came in and showed them a stack of papers and books in her arms.

"I've been up all night researching. I found a lead and realized the urgency of getting this one back. I found copies of these ancient texts in the library. It speaks of a recipe for magic that I'm sure I remember being in my master's collection. In his notes he makes reference to a recipe with a slightly different name, and I think they all refer to the same recipe – and if it is, it is very dangerous."

"How did you find out where it is, Nana?"

"Look it said right here that it was stolen from my master by a man named Lewis. Lewis managed to keep it hidden from my master for many years and eventually bragged to my master that he had passed it on to his son who would use it one day to take over the world."

"Well, wonder what went wrong? No 'one' person has taken over the whole world yet, as far as I know." Sid was still yawning.

"The master passed away before he could get it back from Lewis's son, but in his notes he wrote where he thought he was hiding it."

"Where Nana?" Sue asked, but Nana's answer was interrupted by Tobey snoring. Sid poked him he woke up and stretched his hands out "Shrimp toast?"

"No Tobey, no Shrimp toast, magic recipe – stay awake!" Sid pinched him. Tobey pinched him back. Sue broke them up.

Nana continued, "Lewis's son, Mark Lewis runs his legal practice from offices in downtown Chinatown. It's the really fancy old building with the fountains. They say it survived the Earthquake of 1906 with only minor damage."

"So you think he will have kept it with him all this time, knowing what it is without trying to use it?" Sue was trying to make sense of someone else's actions.

"Yes, my master suspected that he kept the recipe in an antiquarian copy of a law book titled,

'Repetito Guiielmi Benedicti Juriscons' it's an exhaustive text about wills, inheritance and succession in Roman and canon law. By Benoit. From 1522!"

Tobey smiled sideways at Nana. "Wow, that's an old one but the only part I understood was the date."

"It's ok, I'm sure you won't have to look hard for it. He would display it in a place of prominence. It will be locked up, but not in a safe since he would want to show it off. It will probably be locked in a glass case. I have already made up some of the Black Liquid recipe to melt the side of whatever he has it preserved and locked in."

"But be careful with it – don't melt the book or the recipe - and be careful to not damage the book at all! It is likely to be very fragile. All we want in my master's recipe. Leave no other trace that you were there."

"But what if the doors on the roof and in the building are locked, can we melt the doorknobs?"

Tobey answered that one first. "No problem Sid, I will go with you, I can pick the locks."

"Another skill you picked up as a kid?"

"Well yeah – but now I can use it to help protect Chinatown from the Kong Li and the magic recipes."

"Oh how lucky we are that you are around Tobey," Sue smiled at him. He couldn't tell for sure if that was a compliment and frowned at her.

Sid was holding the vial with the Black Liquid recipe in it. "Nana, if it will melt glass, why doesn't the vial melt?"

"Good question Sid. The recipe won't be effective until it comes into contact with the air. But, I melted three of Calvin's cooking pots before I got it right, so as soon as the stores open after the holiday, I will have to replace them."

"I want you three to go now, before daylight. After daylight there will be more people out, and someone will see you. The few people that will be there on a holiday should be opening late anyway but I want you out of there and home before daylight. The office you need is on the top floor. All you have to do is get in the door on the roof and go down one floor. You should be in and out before the security guard even wakes up from his nap."

Sue giggled. "But Nana, it will take too long to climb up to the roof and then climb back down on the fire escape!"

"I already have a faster way up." She handed Tobey a cookie, and he started to break it open to eat it. "No Tobey, I'm not just giving you a cookie." Nana put her hand over his hand to stop him. Wait till you get there, you don't want to waste any of your flying monkey charm here do you?

"Monkey! Again Nana? Can't I turn into a bat? Oh! Or a raptor - with long talons."

"No Tobey, a bat or a bird would be too small. You wouldn't be able to carry the vials or open the heavy book."

"Besides, you make such a handsome monkey!" Sue offered.

Sid waved his hands for everyone to move so he could get up. "Let's get dressed and get out of here, the sooner we get back the sooner we can nap!"

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[Tobee continued . . .]


	2. Chapter 2

THREE DELIVERY - Sinister Balls of Fire 2

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

Chapter 2

[incomplete]

Violence, angst, disaster. Tobey torture. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and any similarity between my secondary characters and anyone living or dead is completely unintentional, except those who already know I was describing them. *don't take as medical advice – it is fan fiction, duh.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard who blames Tobey for getting kicked off the police force, three years earlier tries to frame him for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

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"There it is, come on." Tobey and Sid followed Sue behind the bushes along the side of the road across the street. They stopped their bikes in a little park and stayed well hidden. Sue got low and looked across at the building for a moment. The security guard came out of the glass doors right across from them and lit a cigarette. It was dark and they couldn't tell much more than he was short and had a pot belly.

Tobey took the cookie out of his pocket. Sue whispered, "Wait, he will see the light from the transformation." Tobey nodded and they watched.

They could see the red glow and smoke brightly even from across the street in the darkness. The guy only took about three puffs off of his cigarette and then left it burning in the ash tray when he went back in.

Sid rolled his eyes. "Wow! At nearly ten dollars a pack you would think he wouldn't waste any of the 'disease causing' goodness."

"What a jerk!" Tobey cracked up so loudly Sue and Sid both pounced on him to shut him up. Still giggling, he broke the cookie and the flash surrounded all three of them. While Sue and Sid climbed off of him he stuffed both halves of the cookie in his monkey mouth. Sid accidentally stepped on his tail and made him squeal, Sue covered his mouth and he started choking on the cookie.

"Would you just go? Hurry up!" She scolded him. He coughed and grinned at them as he flapped his wings and lifted off the ground with very little effort.

They could hear Tobey coughing like he was trying to cough up a fur ball as he flew toward the roof of the building. Once he landed on the roof, he stopped coughing and ran, looking for the door.

Down on the street, Sue and Sid went wide and low and moved along the side of the building. From behind the bushes they could see the guard sitting at the front desk staring at a monitor, and frantically clicking a mouse. He made a hand gesture and slammed his fist on the desk. The mouse took a little trip through the air and slammed onto the floor.

"Whoa, he takes his game seriously,"

". . . and what a sore loser, hope Tobey doesn't run into him."

"He won't! Tobey will be in and out before he could even get up there in the elevator." Sue sounded so sure it made Sid more nervous.

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Tobey kept his wings folded tightly on his back trying to be smaller while he picked the lock. There were other, taller buildings nearby and he didn't want someone from another building to see him. A flying monkey picking a lock would surly make the morning news.

Tobey opened the door just wide enough to slip through sideways with his wings folded. Once inside he moved down the stairs silently staying close to the wall. He looked around carefully for security cameras as he went, but didn't see any yet.

On the next floor he jogged down the hall, watching for cameras and looking at the numbers on the doors. Maybe this building is too old. Maybe they never installed cameras in here! He moved faster after that thought came to him.

Tobey found the right office and got down on one knee to pick the lock. He still didn't see any cameras when he peeked through the door before he went in. Tobey relocked the door behind him and had no trouble finding the book. It was in a case built especially for displaying one large book right in front of the desk. He couldn't even find a lock to pick. I looked like it had no easy way to get access to the book. Tobey took the vial out and started to pour a little along the side.

When the Black Liquid made contact with the air, the whole vial started to melt in his fingers – Tobey let go of it and it splashed, not only melting the side of the glass, but the edge and side of the cabinet, the carpet, the front legs of an expensive looking chair and both of Tobey's shoes. He kicked them off just in time to save his feet.

"Oops." He whispered, and reached over all the gooey surfaces for the book. He lifted it carefully off of its short pedestal and held it over the desk to flip through the pages. When he got ten pages away from the recipe, he could see the magical glow he was after. He turned to it and took it out carefully from in between the pages. It had been in there so long, the pages around it glowed for a moment even after he removed it.

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Still staring through the glass next to the locked front doors from behind the bushes, Sue and Sid saw the guard startle. He had seen a shadow move across his monitor from the law offices on the top floor. He hurried and stuck his nightstick in its holster, made sure his cuffs were in their pouch and ran for the elevator. The guard with the nametag, 'Gary' impatiently kept pushing the button since the elevator didn't open right away.

"Oh no – Sue! He knows! He must have seen something on a monitor, or an alarm went off or something!"

Thinking quickly, Sue jumped out from behind the bushes and pounded on the glass doors trying to distract Gary. Knowing the door was locked and she couldn't bother him unless he let her, he made a rude hand gesture and got in the elevator. Sue watched as the elevator doors closed.

"What do we do?" when Sue looked at Sid he was calling Tobey.

Tobey whispered when he answered. "Yes."

"The guard is on is way up! He saw you on a monitor or something, get out of there!"

"Right – I have the recipe – see you soon."

Tobey rolled up the recipe and ran for the door. He almost yanked his arm out of its socket, when the door didn't open – he forgot he locked it. He fumbled with his monkey fingers and finally got it, but when he ran out in the hall, he was disoriented in the large, 'everything looks the same' building and ran the wrong way. He found himself right in front of the elevators and one of them was opening with the guard impatiently waiting behind the doors. Tobey jumped into the air and flew around the corner.

It was too narrow in the hallway and he folded his wings back up. On his feet again he ran silently down the long hallway and around the next corner. The guard had just barely made it to the first corner going the other way. He was heading for the office first and hadn't seen Tobey at all yet.

"Yes!" Tobey exclaimed. He looked at the recipe rolled up in his hand and jogged toward where he thought the stairs to the roof might be. The guard knocked a hole in the wall when he got to the office and found his 'perpetrator' was already gone. Trying to think ahead, he headed for the stairs too. All the physical activity got him coughing and he had trouble being stealthy.

Tobey got to the end of the hall and pressed flat against the wall to look around the next corner. He still didn't see any stairs or signs pointing to 'Exit' or even better 'Stairs' so he thought even the elevator might do, if he got down to the first floor, he could pick the lock and get out that way. He started jogging down the next hallway staying close to the wall wishing he was invisible, instead of a monkey.

Tobey realized the numbers on the doors were getting bigger. He was sure he needed them to go down, from the 350's to the 310 ish numbers to wind up where he started. The office he broke into was 322 and the stairs were before that so he ran back the way he came. "Duh, I wish I would' a thought of that sooner."

Halfway down the hall, back in front of the 333 door the last sensation he expected came over him, stopping him in his tracks. With a flash of light, he turned back into human Tobey!

"What? This isn't supposed to happen until I break another cookie! This is really bad." He said mostly to himself. Well I can still make it to the roof and take the fire escape down. He put the rolled up recipe under his shirt. I'm gonna have to talk to Nana about the guarantee on her cookies. While he spent all that time thinking, at least he was running too, but around a corner, he ran into a solid, but soft, really stinky cigarette-smelling wall and fell back on his butt.

The guard pointed the end of the nightstick in his face. "It's you! The punk who ruined my life!"

Tobey gasped and started scooting backwards as fast as he could! He recognized him! It was the arresting officer-turned security guard from when he was twelve years old - Gary Smith! The guard lunged at him and Tobey was so scared he froze. Gary put his nightstick uncomfortably close to Tobey's face. "If I had known you were still living around here I would have paid you back a long time ago for what you did to me."

"What I did to you! Are you kidding? You were the one who broke my arm! I wasn't fighting or even trying to get away – and I was twelve years old! Whatever happened – you did it to yourself!" Gary swung the end of his nightstick at Tobey's head, Tobey blocked with is forearm.

"Well, I see I didn't teach you as much as I hoped three years ago. You need another session!"

When he lunged at Tobey the next time, Tobey rolled out of the way and got to his feet and took off running. The guard walked quickly after him, but wasn't really hurrying. He knew there was no way out the way he was running. Not even a window.

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While he ran, Tobey pulled out his phone and frantically called Sid.

"Tobey?" he answered quickly.

"Sid! Help – it's him, the cop from when I was twelve! He said he's gonna teach me again! Nana's spell didn't last-I can't . . . Aahg."

He stopped speaking abruptly when the guard's thrown nightstick hit him in the back of the head and made him drop his phone.

"TOBEY! TOBEY! Oh no – Sue! The guard found him! And it's the same guy who broke his arm three years ago! He's the bad tempered security guard here!"

"Oh no!" She dialed Nana as they ran around the building toward the fire escape. Once under it, Sid jumped up, pulled the ladder down and started climbing. Sue hung up and told him Nana was on her way.

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Tobey found an open door and realized it was the same office he found the recipe in. he ran in and locked the door behind him.

"Crap! There are no windows in here!" He figured he could hide and when the guy came in, he would run past him and escape. Now he knew which way to go to find the stairs.

Tobey hid next to a bookcase, he was skinny enough to get out of sight next to it, and he made sure his bright white bangs weren't sticking out. He didn't think about the corner also being a good place to get trapped in.

The guard sauntered in, he was in no rush. "I know you're in here you little punk. Come on out and let me show you the error of your ways. You know, I could tell you were no good the first time I saw you."

Tobey sucked in his already sucked in gut, even tighter and held his breath. He smelled the guard before he saw him.

Without warning his shirtfront was grabbed and he was yanked out from the corner and after uttering a muffled sound of surprise, he was pushed to the floor with a nightstick pressed hard against his sternum. It hurt just to breathe, he didn't dare move.

"No! I wasn't stealing anything! I just got locked out on the roof after hours - I was up there all night waiting for someone to come out so I could get back down to the first floor."

"Oh ya?" The guard dropped to his knee and grabbed a handful of Tobey's hair behind his ear. "There's no one else here yet, to have let you off the roof." He lifted Tobey's head up to look right into his face and Tobey turned his head away not wanting to breathe in anymore of the guy's cigarette breath and spittle than he had to.

"Don't you dare look away from me! Listen! I know you're lying – what were you doing in this office?"

"Nothing, the door was unlocked – I was looking for a phone to call for help getting out of here!" Tobey's chest heaved he was breathing so fast.

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"Shit the door is locked!" Sue was on the verge of crying! "Can't you pick the lock?"

"You know I can't Mei Mei - that's Tobey's claim to fame!"

"We gotta get in there-what do we do? And where are the cops! If a guard sees a break in and calls the police, wouldn't they have been here by now?"

"From what Tobey said, this guy probably hasn't called the police yet - he may want to punish Tobey himself!"

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The guard mashed the nightstick harder into Tobey's chest and made him wince, his breathing got even faster more like panting.

"Keep your hands up." Tobey bent his elbows and stretched his fingers open with the back of his hands pressed into the floor on either side just over his head. Tobey didn't move except to breathe. He thought maybe if he was cooperative enough, the guy would just have him arrested without the rough stuff. Gary let go of Tobey's hair and started patting him down like he was looking for weapons.

Tobey gasped when he pulled the recipe out of his shirt. "Is this what you were stealing? Looks like a recipe! What are you - a cook? Maybe they will let you be a cook in prison."

"I'm too young for prison."

"Only a few years away the path you're on – if you live that long."

Tobey was so scared already - that threat made him gasp and bend his knee with his leg off the floor a little, showing how much he wanted to run. Gary exchanged the nightstick for his fist to punch him in the center of his chest and cracked him across his thigh with it. Tobey cried out after the punch and the hit with the stick to his leg. He hit Tobey so hard that if he would have hit him in the knee he would have broken it.

"Flat on the carpet!"

Tobey winced and whined through his teeth. "Please, just call the police – let them come arrest me! I'll go quietly!"

"I bet you will, you know they will let you off."

"I didn't do anything but get trapped up here when the building closed! Please!"

"Stop lying!" He pulled back the nightstick to hit him again and Tobey twisted out from under the fist that had been pressing into his chest. As he rolled to his feet to run, the nightstick cracked him just above the knee on his other leg and he fell on his stomach. The guard was on top of him with a knee in his back.

"Resisting arrest huh?"

Holding him down with his knee, he grabbed Tobey's wrist and twisted it up behind his back.

Tobey started screaming and sobbing when he felt him grab his wrist. He kicked with his legs trying to get away as the guard calmly took the cuffs out of their case on his belt. He casually swung the cuffs and hit Tobey in the temple with them. Tobey stopped screaming for a few seconds and blood trickled into his white bangs.

"No! Please!" he screamed and struggled again when he heard the cuff snap closed on his wrist. The guard reached for his other wrist and snapped the cuff on it too and Tobey screamed even louder and then lay still, sobbing.

Sid and Sue could even hear him screaming from outside! "TOBEY!" They screamed back.

"Sid something real bad is happening to Tobey in there!" Sid started slamming against the heavy door with his shoulder but had no luck budging the outward opening door. Sue saw Nana running across the roof at them, and at the same time, heard sirens and squealing tires below on the street.

"Nana! We can hear Tobey in there! He's been screaming!"

Afraid the police would get up there in time; Nana took a turkey baster out of her bag full of liquid with a mist rising from the tip. She squirted the liquid in the key hole and turned the knob. The whole lock and doorknob disintegrated in her hand. Sid was the first down the steps. Nana called the room number to find as they ran down stairs.

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Once he had the cuffs on his 'suspect' he flipped him over on his back and emptied Tobey's pockets. Finding nothing else he grabbed the recipe again and got right in Tobey's face again.

"What is this?" he held the recipe up so Tobey could see it.

"It's my Nana's recipe, I didn't steal it! Please give it back!"

The guard looked around, hearing the sirens too. "Damn, why are they here already! I didn't call 'em yet."

He put the recipe in his pocket, flipped Tobey back on his stomach and picked him up by the handcuffs. He thought his shoulders were coming right out of their sockets and he started screaming again. He only made it up as far as his knees before a fist slammed into his stomach knocking the wind out of him. The guard let go of the handcuffs and let Tobey fall back down on the carpet.

Tobey could see Gary out of the corner of his eye and couldn't believe what he was seeing! The ex-cop was bashing the back of his own hand with the paperweight from the desk. He hit his hand until it started to bleed and to finish off the effect he was after; he pulled the closet door into his own face as hard as he could over and over, until he had blood running out of his hair and the start of a black eye.

Tobey lost track of him for a few seconds, but lifted his head, painfully to find him standing on a chair taking the tape out of the video camera – Tobey couldn't see what he did with it.

Gary hurried and kicked Tobey one more time when he heard someone pound on the office door and at least two voices yelling Tobey! Tobey heard it too, but couldn't answer them through the wall of pain he was struggling with.

Just then the doorknob fell in, landed on the carpet behind him and the door flew open. Sid and Sue ran straight to Tobey and kneeled down to check him. Nana watched the guard. He was moaning and looking as pitiful as he could. Two policemen came in right behind Nana.

"Tobey it's us." Sue told him. Tobey struggled against the handcuffs and uttered sounds that sounded like a trapped animal.

Sue panicked. "Can't you get these off of him? They're upsetting him."

The guard answered her. "That dangerous desperate criminal won't be getting those off any time soon. He better get used to wearing em."

"Dangerous! Your nuts! Tobey's not dangerous at all – you are the one who's dangerous!" She started to argue with him but Tobey interrupted her. "I'm ok now Sue." Sid patted his back wishing for a way to help him.

Gary Smith went on to tell the police how this crazed teen, came in to rob the place and how "He must have been looking for drugs."

"In a law office?" Officer Lucas questioned his reasoning. "There are Doctors and Dentists in this building too."

"I wasn't stealing anything. I told you I got lost and was looking for a phone."

"Stop lying – you tried to kill me! Look at the blood on my head! He took my nightstick and hit me with it. I hurt my hand taking it away from him."

"Enough." Officer Lucas looked sad, but told the other Officer to just read Tobey his rights, Tobey was under arrest.

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[Tobee continued . . . ]


	3. Chapter 3

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 3

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 3

INCOMPLETE. Violence, angst, disaster.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard who blames Tobey for getting kicked off the police force, three years earlier tries to frame him for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

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Officer Lucas was happy that soon the investigators would show up and would have more questions for everyone and he could just listen and maybe get to the truth. He knew Gary wasn't going to let his guard down when he or his partner spoke with him, but hoped he would get sloppy while the investigators spoke with him.

Nana kneeled next to Tobey and asked him how he was feeling, if he hurt anywhere. Tobey lied and said he was fine, and Nana knew he lied. She took a small leaf from her bag and tore the tip off of it. He obediently opened his mouth when she touched his chin and she put the leaf in his mouth. "Hold that under your tongue, and leave it there."

"Nana what was that?"

"What did you give him?" Sid and Sue were both a little worried.

"It will help with his pain, like aspirin – only natural and no side effects."

Lucas walked back over to Tobey and his family. It had been a couple of months since he had an excuse to see Mei Hua at the restaurant, but he hated seeing her as 'part of the job'.

"Hello again Mai Hua." Officer Lucas offered his hand to help her rise from Tobey's side. He motioned for her to sit in the chair next to Tobey's legs by the wall. He looked at the other chair, the one with the melted legs and was distracted for a moment thinking about how that might have happened before he got down on one knee to speak to Tobey.

"Sorry Tobey," Officer Lucas bent down and explained to Tobey that he couldn't take the cuffs off yet.

"Technically you are under arrest. You were found someplace where you really shouldn't have been."

"I know it looks bad Officer Lucas, but I promise I wasn't doing anything bad!"

"I really am sorry Tobey, I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation and you weren't trying to steal anything . . . Do you wanna tell me what really happened?"

Tobey turned his head the other way and strained to look back at Nana.

"Officer Lucas," Nana spoke, "How long will this take? I do have some muffins in the oven." She winked at him, he smiled at her. Sid was sure he got a cavity, just watching the two of them.

Sid and Sue were glad they had an ally that would see that Tobey stayed in one piece at least. Tobey moaned and tried to reposition to take some of the pressure off his chest. Officer Lucas directed his attention back to his 'suspect'.

"Tobey, would you be more comfortable if I helped you sit up in the chair?"

"No. I'll stay here." Tobey opted to just stay on the floor. His ribs and chest would hurt more if he had to sit up with his hands behind his back. It looked like he was chewing on something as he repositioned the leaf under his tongue.

Officer Lucas was still worried about him, as worried as his family was. "How badly are you hurt Tobey? I can arrange for you to be seen by a doctor right away."

"No, I wanna stay and hear what else that creep has to say. He's lying – about everything!"

"I know, and the video from the security cameras will prove it, but Tobey that doesn't explain what you were doing here in the first place. What else is the video going to show us?"

"I know, please believe me – I wasn't trying to steal or do anything bad and he took the video out of the camera! I'm shrimp toast."

"What did he do with the disc?"

"I didn't see what he did with it."

"Has he left the room?"

"No."

"Then we'll find the recording, try to relax Tobey."

Officer Lucas stood up and went back with the other officer to hear the rest of Mr. Smith's story. Gary expressed concern that Tobey was not being closely observed by an Officer of the law and pretended to be afraid that the criminal would hurt one of the other kids trying to escape.

"He's not your problem anymore. He is under my supervision." Officer Lucas asked him for the tape from the camera. The guard denied knowing anything about it.

"Sue, Sid." Tobey whispered. They leaned down closer. "That guy has the recipe. He found it on me and took it – he put it in his own pocket."

Sue got up to whisper to Nana. Sid told Tobey not to worry they would get it back, and he added, "That guy is no Kong Li."

"Yeah, but I can whoop on Kong Li. I let this guy beat me – again." Sid patted his shoulder and told him it was ok. Sue was up whispering in Nana ear about the recipe. Nana nodded calmly, even knowingly and sat quietly just listening.

The new, young officer came over to talk to Nana. Officer Lucas was still talking with the guard. Tobey repositioned his legs again trying to get a little more comfortable.

Nana explained to the new, young officer. "I had an emergency appointment this morning at the dentist on the floor below and we just came in. They should be there waiting for me. I broke this infected tooth, see the puss?"

She opened her mouth and pointed at a back tooth, but the young officer really didn't want to look.

She continued, "There was no guard downstairs and the door was open so we just came in to wait where it's warmer. Even from the next floor below, we heard screaming and came up to check."

"Well it seems like you and these kids know the suspect. How did it come to be?"

"Well we do, and I assure you he was up to nothing sinister."

"But why was he up here, why wasn't he at the dentist's office with you?"

"Well I'm not sure about that just yet - but I'll let you know as soon as I think of something that sounds good."

The officer looked at her strangely and half smiled. Nana was putting on her best, slightly confused old lady act.

The guard thought he heard the last part of the conversation "He got in here illegally - the building is closed!"

Officer Lucas quietly answered him, "You said that already and if you noticed, this distinguished woman and two other kids got in, just walking through the door because you weren't at your post."

"But he did this to me! He attacked me when I tried to handcuff him."

"Yeah well, Gary, he will be examined by a doctor and we will find out how much you attacked him back – I bet they can even tell if you beat on him before you put the handcuffs on him, or after."

Officer Lucas lowered his voice and glared intensely at the guard. He looked at the other officer. "Put Gary here, under arrest pending investigation."

"No! Why – I'm building security! And I'm the victim here!"

Officer Lucas made a 'Blah-Blah-Blah' motion by opening and closing his fingers like a 'quacking duck' shadow puppet. He walked back over to where Tobey was still lying handcuffed face down on the floor.

The investigators arrived with their cases and equipment at the same time Officer Lucas kneeled down next to Tobey again. Tobey didn't see him coming and flinched. He jerked his shoulders when Lucas first touched the handcuffs.

"Easy Tobey, it's against all the rules, but this is taking longer than a forever." He unlocked one cuff and watched Tobey painfully put his hands on the carpet to get up. Sid was closest and tried to help him.

Tobey only got so far before he grabbed his ribs and leaned forward again with his forehead on Sue's leg. He smiled through the pain he felt wishing he could enjoy being so close to Sue, but no one could see his face. She leaned forward and tried to support him.

Sid helped Tobey sit up again, much too soon really and once up he leaned back against the side of the chair Nana was sitting in with his elbows on his knees. Tobey put his head back and Nana placed her hand over his cheek and jaw. Within seconds, Tobey's head felt tingly, so relaxed his Nana's touch was so healing. When Tobey shut his eyes, he thought he could really feel Nana's energy flowing through him. He could even feel his teeth relaxing.

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In only minutes after their arrival, one of the investigators held up the video disc he found in a plastic plant. The stupid guard didn't even bother to break it. The investigator started to check it into evidence, but Officer Lucas took it right out of his hand.

"But sir, you can't check it out of evidence before we even get it into evidence."

"Don't worry about it, I'm the commander here and I'll be right back. Officer Lucas took the disc down to his patrol car and watched it on his own lap top.

Officer Lucas knew Nana would appreciate it if no one saw the flying monkey that appeared first and as far as he was concerned it wasn't important to the case. He saw a flying monkey one once before, the night when many children of Chinatown were missing. He never mentioned it, and never even asked Nana about it, but after several other events he witnessed, he suspected Nana sometimes cooked up more at Wu's Garden than muffins and Moo Shu.

When Officer Lucas saw the rest of the tape and saw what Gary did to Tobey, he was enraged. He realized how injured Tobey might really be and hurried to go back up to do something about it. The only part of the recording that made it back up to the top floor for evidence was the part from where Tobey went in the room to hide, to the end when it showed the guard's face right in the camera an instant before he turned it off.

Tobey especially had mixed feelings about the video being found. Rather than let him see his monkey side, maybe it would have been better to just spend some time in jail. Nana was going to be mad, she told him to watch for cameras and he didn't see that one.

Officer Lucas came back in and handed a disc back to the investigator.

Tobey coughed and hurt his ribs again. He winced but called, "Officer Lucas! Did you watch it?"

"Yes -Tobey and it's perfect."

"Really? Was there anything, um weird on it?"

"I only saw the parts of the tape we needed to see to put that guy away - nothing else." He smiled at Tobey and ruffled his hair. "I'm really sorry this happened to you and after seeing the video, I think you are hurting real bad."

Sid and Sue's expressions changed to expressions of great concern. And they listened as Tobey answered Lucas.

"Ya well, me and him have a history. He arrested me when I was twelve and broke my arm. He thinks I got him kicked off the police force."

"Really? Well that's some major motive for what happened here this morning, isn't it?"

"Let's go, stand up Tobey, I gotta put the cuffs back on you. I'll use my own. We have to go through the motions just because you were found in a closed building, but be patient everything will be ok. We will get you checked over and feeling better."

Sid was already standing and helped Tobey up. He stayed close and watched Tobey's eyes carefully while the cuffs went back on his friend's wrists.

Tobey saw Sid's concern and whispered "I'm fine Sid, its Officer Lucas." He didn't even flinch when the cuffs went back on him. Officer Lucas left his hands in front this time.

Lucas glared at 'Gary' when his partner took him out first and down to the patrol car. He was handcuffed too and he whined whole time about how he was the victim!

Officer Lucas, walking with Tobey had to fight to get by a camera crew from a news station to get to another patrol car. They made it through, but not before they put the camera right in Tobey's face. Sue recognized the guy they see on the news all the time and he was trying to interview everyone he could keep up with.

Nana, Sid and Sue watched Officer Lucas cover Tobey's head to be sure he didn't bump it when he got in, and saw he had tears in his eyes as they watched the car pull away.

Sue started to cry when she saw Tobey cry. "Nana what can we do? Tobey's hurt, again! AND he's going to jail! He told us what that guy did to him three years ago and he's not over that yet."

"And what if they find out everything? What if they got flying monkey Tobey on the tape?"

"Everything will be fine kids. I called a cab. We will follow them to the police station and wait until Tobey is done and bring him home.

"But they arrested him! What makes you think we will be able to bring him home with us?" Sid was trying to be tough, but he was clearly upset.

"We are lucky to have Officer Lucas on his case. And Tobey is tough - he will get through this with your help." Nana just finished and their cap pulled up.

Officer Lucas let Tobey lie on a couch in someone's office while they waited for different things to happen. But Nana, Sue and Sid had to wait elsewhere after they were finished being interviewed.

After several more tedious hours of questions and reports, photographs of injuries, fingerprinting and more evidence gathering Officer Lucas finally came into the room and told Nana she could take Tobey home.

"We have all we need, and we know where to find you. There is no evidence to hold him, but lots of evidence to show he was assaulted by Mr. Smith. Ms. Wu, please take him to the hospital and have him checked over carefully, spare no expense – I have a feeling someone else will be paying his hospital bills after court."

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A couple more hours at the hospital told them Tobey was badly bruised and contused in several areas and would be very sore for a while. Nothing Tobey didn't already know. By the time they got home, Mr. Wu was beside himself! They had already missed most of their deliveries, and "It's a holiday – which means we are busier than usual – you kids are going to ruin my restaurant!"

Nana told him that he and Barney would just have to keep on coping with it and herded the kids upstairs. They were tired even before this all started. Calvin started to object again.

"Calvin! If they feel like it after they take a nap, they can help, but we are not going to force them, I don't want to hear you yelling anymore this evening." Mr. Wu grumbled like a spoiled kid and told Barney to take another delivery out.

Sid, Sue and Tobey's rest turned into more than a nap and Nana was glad they slept all the way until time to go to school the next morning. Sid woke up just before Tobey did and he heard him coming down. "Hey Tob, how are you feeling?"

"Like I really-really gotta pee!" he was running for the bathroom.

Mr. Wu and Barney were already in the dining room watching TV and saw Tobey being arrested on the news just before they came downstairs. When they all appeared in the kitchen, Mr. Wu had a lot of very loud questions.

He stood, looking very menacing in front of Tobey when he went for a bowl of rice for breakfast. "Why am I seeing you on the news, breaking into a building – and assaulting a police officer?"

"What? I didn't assault anyone, they were gonna arrest me, but released me when they found out I didn't do it, and it was a security guard, and he assaulted me!" he said it all very fast without taking a breath or making much sense.

Nana came up behind Tobey and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him. "It's ok Tobey. I will explain what happened to Calvin and Barney. You go ahead and get ready for school.

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At school, everyone repeated what the erroneous news report said - at first, but as the hours went on, the rumors changed from 'assaulted' to 'killed' a cop! Tobey tried to tell everyone that he didn't do it, but even his friends were ready to believe an exaggerated and totally untrue news report from a stranger before they would believe him.

Sid, Sue and Tobey, all had a really long, bad day at school. They spent more time trying to explain what happened and standing up for Tobey than they did their schoolwork. Sue totally failed a test, just because she couldn't concentrate.

When they got home, Nana sat with them while they ate. Tobey ate a little but mostly picked at his food. Sid finished Tobey's when he pushed his plate away. Nana told them that the news had started to run a partial retraction and a slightly more correct version of the story, but it was run as a little side piece after the weather.

Sid sounded desperate, "But Nana, I'm afraid the damage is done. They were horrible to him at school all day. Even a teacher asked me if 'my brother' killed a cop and wanted to know why was he still allowed to be at school."

"He's not even your brother." Sue said without thinking.

"Well Duh! It was the least important thing they got wrong all day. They all think Tobey killed a cop." Tobey folded his arms and put his head down on the table until they got done talking and went out for deliveries.

That night he woke Sid up twice having night terrors. Sid went and got Nana and she gave him some tea that would help him sleep.

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The next day at school, they locked up their bikes, and went in three different directions to their classes, just like always. Sid watched Tobey go and saw a group of boys following him across the basketball court. He changed direction to take the long way to his class.

Tobey sighed when they caught up and surrounded him. "What do you guys want? Just let me go to class."

"No, we want to know, if we are safe with you around. If you killed a cop, what's gonna stop you from hurting any of us or our friends?"

"Look Dirk, if I killed anyone, I wouldn't be here – I'd be in jail."

"Well maybe your rich family bought someone off."

"Rich? No one is my family is rich."

"They own a restaurant don't they?"

"Every time you open your mouth you prove you're even dumber than I thought you were just seconds before."

"Oh ya? Why don't you show me how tough you are, you're tough enough to kill a cop, let's see if you can take me down."

Two of Dirk's friends grabbed Tobey from behind and held him.

"You GIANT CHICKEN, already got your friends giving you the advantage? You must really be scared of me – why don't you wait 'til you have more of your friends here?"

Dirk punched Tobey in the stomach, but as Tobey bent over like he was in pain, he flipped both of Dirk's friends through the air to land on their backs. Tobey smiled. He was holding his stomach, but very pleased with that move.

"Jerk! I'll show you who's Chicken!" Dirk through a punch that Tobey blocked before delivery one of his own to Dirk's jaw.

Another of Dirk's friends hit Tobey across the back with his backpack full of books as Sid came running around the corner.

Sid yelled "Hey!" and jumped up to land in the middle of the group by Tobey. Tobey was holding his stomach and fell to his knees, dizzy from being hit with the book bag.

"I guess you're gonna protect your little murderer friend. Well we'll see both of you later, when the odds are evener."

"Who taught you how to talk? Or add?" Sid raised his eyebrow.

Tobey grinned and stood up straighter. "There's six of you and only two of us. Looks like the odds couldn't be any more even."

"Yeah well - I talk more gooder than you!" He waved his hand and the other's followed him.

When they were gone Sid picked up Tobey's backpack. "Tobey? Are you badly hurt? I got here as soon as I could."

"I'm ok, glad you got here at all. How did you know?"

"Something didn't feel just right. I came to check on you."

"We better be on our guard I have a feeling this isn't over."

"Do you need me to take you to the nurse?"

"No, I'll be ok in a minute, I was still sore from when I ran into the guard and Dirk hit me in the same spot."

Sid handed Tobey his phone, "Look, Barney texted me that he heard on the news that Gary Smith is out on bail and still insists that he is the victim. He got fired from his security job too and the news reporters are letting him speak out – telling his 'version' of the story. Seems like everyone is listening to that jerk tell how he put his own life in danger arresting the dangerous teen."

"Well if my supposed victim is talking on TV at least maybe they will figure out that I didn't kill anyone."

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[Tobee continued . . . ]


	4. Chapter 4

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 4

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 4

INCOMPLETE. Violence, angst, disaster, brief implied nudity.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard who blames Tobey for getting kicked off the police force, three years earlier tries to frame him for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

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Sid and Tobey went on to their classes and met Sue for lunch like usual. Sue was planning to tease Tobey for having to wear her shoes, but he looked so down, she couldn't bring herself to say anything. The staring and whispering around them took Tobey's appetite away again and he didn't even finish the shrimp toast that he brought from Wu's. In History class, someone smashed a jelly donut against the back of Tobey's head and jelly with powdered sugar got in his hair and ran down the back of his shirt.

Tobey got excused and went to the showers in the gym to rinse the jelly out of his hair and off his shirt. He missed the rest of History class and spent the next two classes wet and sneezing. At least the sneezing helped distract him from all the rubber bands and paperclips that kept flying at him.

After Sid's last class he had tennis practice and three seconds after the bell, he could be found jogging happily to the courts. He was really looking forward to being out of the stuffy classroom with all the staring and whispering. Stacy was already there when he got there and she got the court for them with no problem.

Feeling totally miserable by the end of the day, Tobey got out of his last class and headed to the tennis courts to watch Sid and Stacy practice. Not that he was a huge tennis fan, but he wanted to wait for Sid anyway so they could ride home together. He was in no hurry to get back where Mr. Wu was sure to have something else to accuse him of.

Tobey took a short-cut through the outdoor basketball courts on the way and after he got across the playing areas found the exit blocked by more of Dirk's friends. He just changed direction badly wanting to avoid any more trouble for one day. But there were two more boys at the next gate and when he turned around Dirk and two more were right behind him!

Now we will finish what we started this morning. "No! Not again! I don't have time for this! Come on you guys, even six of you can't beat me and Sid – so just leave me alone."

"Your friend is playing tennis with some girl so he won't be rescuing you this time."

"It's ok, maybe I don't need him. I wouldn't want to miss out on having the pleasure of kicking all of your butts myself." Tobey dropped into his defensive snake stance and waited for their first move.

"Oh, I'm so scared!" Dirk replied. The same two guys from the morning's fracas tried to grab Tobey from behind again and he easily flipped them both forward at the same time. They fell for the same move twice and this time when Tobey put them down they almost knocked down their leader Dirk, but he jumped over them right at Tobey and delivered a punch that Tobey easily blocked.

The other three in Dirk's 'gang' spread out, determined not to let their prey get by them. Dirk tackled Tobey and they both fell. After a roll they both jumped up and Dirk kicked at Tobey. He had no 'form' at all so Tobey easily caught his foot and pushed him back on his butt.

While Dirk was down again, Tobey took off running. He tried to run between two of the others. One managed to trip him and when he fell on his already bruised ribs and chest, the force of his fall knocked the wind out of him. He was slower to stand back up than usual.

Tobey looked up from the ground and saw them all standing around him with their arms crossed. Dirk spoke, "What do you guys think we should do with him?"

"Let's 'pants' him! That will show the whole school how tough the cop killer is."

"Yeah! That will show everyone 'everything'!"

"Haven't you moron's figured out yet that I didn't kill anyone?" Tobey argued and threatened as they pulled him to his feet. Two held his arms and two more stood near. "You guys better let me go before I go Kung Fu all over you!"

Tobey's threat made them all laugh. Tobey planted Sue's old gym shoe into one of his attacker's guts and made him double over, but he couldn't twist away from the two that held his arms that time. They grabbed his wrists and pulled his arms out to his sides.

Being restrained by his wrists again, Tobey started screaming hysterically. They shrieked with laughter the whole time. Dirk undid Tobey's belt and pulled his pants and boxers down around his ankles, he tried to kick him but only got tangled in his pants. He struggled futilely while they dragged him backwards across the court before they stopped at a basket. Dirk intended to tie him to the pole with his boxers tied around his wrists and ankles.

Dirk yanked Tobey's pants the rest of the way off his legs and his shoes came off with them. He kicked them far away and tore Tobey's boxers to use to tie him to the pole. While his arms were being held, his legs were free! Tobey started kicking wildly connecting with two of Dirk's friends, but he only got punched below the belt for his trouble. Now he tried to curl up in a ball to cover his important parts and struggled to get his wrists free.

The two guys he just kicked joined in and Tobey's arms were pulled around the pole. They held him tight against the pole and Dirk went behind him. Tobey struggled and yelled the whole time, they held onto his wrists, just under his wristbands, digging their fingers into his hands while Dirk tied knots tightly around his wrists.

Without warning, one of the smug guys just watching his friends torture Tobey flew through the air and landed on his back a dozen feet away.

Shocked and enraged when he saw what they were doing to Tobey, Sid nearly lost all control when he ran onto the court in his white tennis outfit. Another guy got a smashed face when Sid's elbow connected with it and he took Dirk down with a round kick to his ankles before he finished him off with a palm strike to his sternum.

The others ran away, soon followed by the rest, except for Dirk after they picked themselves up off the court. Dirk was still on the pavement wheezing and whining.

Sid grabbed Tobey's pants and belt off the court and held them in front of him with one hand to provide some cover while he cut Tobey's hands apart with his pocket knife.

Sid heard hysterical laughter and saw a group of girls standing by the fence were pointing at Tobey and yelling rude comments.

"Go find something else to do!" Sid shouted at the girls and then spoke softly to Tobey. "Sorry, your boxers are shredded."

"That's ok, after the week I've had, it was time for clean ones anyway." Tobey smiled trying to hide his embarrassment. While he put his pants back on he tried to hide his private parts too at first, but soon he realized there was no point to hiding anymore and gave up. Everyone had already seen all he had. He boldly stood up and put his pants back on during a chorus of cat calls and whistles.

"Thanks Sid, again. Sorry you missed your tennis practice with Stacy."

"No problem, Stacy knew I had something important to do. We heard you yelling."

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When they got to their bikes, someone had stolen the front wheel off Tobey's. They also spray-painted it and beat it with a hammer or something. That was more than Tobey could stand.

"My BIKE!" Tobey sat down and cried. He would have rather been naked and hung from the flagpole all day, than have them touch his bike.

He hugged the bent handlebars and tried to polish the spray paint off with his shirt. He couldn't even find his helmet. Sid called Sue and found out she had gone straight home and finished three deliveries already. He told her what happened and told her they would be even later.

Sid sat with Tobey on the curb until he felt like going home. Tobey had been staring at his hands, or rather his wristbands for several minutes before he took them off and threw them as far as he could.

"I guess those don't work after all." Tobey wiped his eyes.

"Sorry Tobey." Sid patted his back and they sat quietly again. Tobey stared at the shoes on his feet and thought about how he hated them too. Having to wear Sue's old gym shoes was just . . . embarrassing, but he melted his! Not wanting to lose anything else he considered 'his', Tobey insisted on taking every piece that was left of his bike home. Sid helped him carry things and walked with him all the way home. Sid picked his wristbands out of the bushes too, without Tobey seeing him.

They put the pieces of Tobey's bike in the garden and Tobey sat with them for a while. Sid went in and told Nana what happened to Tobey and his bike. It was already dusk and it wasn't long before Tobey was shivering out in the garden. After the sun went down, a cold wind started blowing. Sue was out with deliveries and Mr. Wu was yelling like usual when Tobey finally came in. He went straight up to the shower, got the water just a tiny bit hotter than he could stand it and stood under it until it ran cold.

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The next morning early, Nana called the school and told them they were having a family crisis. She stated that she would be home-schooling Sid, Sue and Tobey until it was over. She could hear someone trying to argue even as she hung up the phone.

When Sid, Sue and Tobey came out of their rooms, ready to go to school, Nana told them they were not going. Sue was instantly worried. "Nana! Can you do that?"

"Yeah! Can you take us out of school? Just like that?" Tobey mirrored Sue's question. "Why didn't you do it years ago?"

Nana spoke mostly to Sue, ignoring Tobey. "I already did it, don't worry, I will take care of it."

"Sweet! No school!" Tobey cheered. He really dreaded going back, more than usual. "Ten straight hours of Dragon Robot 7 and a constant supply of food!

"Don't think of it as a vacation Tobey, we have a lot of work to do, and I will give you enough homework to make you look forward to going back to public school."

"What do you want us to do first Nana?" Sid was ready to hit the streets.

"Now that Gary has been released on bail, the need to get the recipe he took from Tobey back as quickly as we can, just took priority. If he uses it, he could cause a lot of damage very easily and target whatever or whoever he wants. Many people could be hurt."

"What does it do Nana?"

"Once the recipe is prepared he will be able to aim the destruction at a specific location. The recipe will send a fireball of destruction to any target."

Sid perked up, "Oh, like the great balls of fire recipe! You remember, Sue found it when we thought our only problem was the green fireballs. Wouldn't the same antidote work on this recipe?"

"Well no, that was an ink recipe." Tobey wasn't listening.

"No, not that one, I mean the spicy fireball recipe that Sue found before we learned that the one Eugene was using was for ink. If it is similar, maybe the same antidote would work."

"I'll look into it, but in the mean time you three must find Gary and see what he's up to and get the recipe back. I 'found' this at the police station. It is Gary Smith's address."

"Yes, Nana." Sid and Sue went out to their bikes and put on their helmets without thinking. Tobey was still standing inside watching them through the glass door. He was really missing his bike and longed to join them.

"Tobey! Hurry up! Hop on!" Sid called. Tobey ran out and stepped up behind Sid on his bike. It made him long even more for his own bike. After they went several blocks Sue stopped, and Sid stopped next to her. Tobey got down and stretched his legs.

Sue checked the note Nana gave her and stuffed it back in her pocket. "This is it. His apartment is on the third floor. I will go in and find which side of the building it's on and call you guys. Then I will give you a few minutes to get up there using the fire escape and knock on his door to distract him."

"But he'll recognize you!"

"Great distraction, huh? I'm sure seeing me at his door will keep him occupied while you two get the recipe."

"Tobey looked real nervous, but aren't we breaking and entering again? What if he catches us? I –I don't think I wanna do this!" Sid could see Tobey's hands were already shaking.

"Well just follow me up – I might need you to pick a lock or something and then you can back me up if I need you, but don't worry - I will just slip in and out so fast Gary will never know I was there."

Tobey agreed and they separated. Sue left them to go through the entrance and up in the elevator.

Tobey and Sid only had to wait a few minutes before she called and told them to climb up the fire escape on the east side of the building. Tobey and Sid ran around the corner and leaped up the fire escape. There were a lot of foot holds and pieces missing from the old fire escape but it didn't even slow the boys down.

Once on the third floor, Tobey was getting more nervous the closer they got and he backed back down the ladder to wait about a half floor below. Sid motioned an 'ok' sign down at him and Tobey nodded. Sid pressed himself flat against the wall to peek inside the apartment.

Sue waited as planned and started knocking. With any luck Gary wouldn't be home and they could just get in and out. She heard someone stomping around inside and fished in her hoodie pocket for a pad of paper and pen. When Gary opened the door he was in his filthy robe and gym shoes without socks. There was a lit cigarette hanging loosely like it was stuck to his lip.

Sue hid her disgust well and smiled at him. "I'm from the Chinatown news, just how big a JERK are you?" she smiled sweetly at him and ducked when he swung his fist at her. "Oh! Too slow!"

"You're the friend of that little punk that got me fired - again!"

"You got yourself fired – what are you mental?" she was playing with fire as she ducked, dodged and blocked drawing Gary farther from his apartment door, teasing him louder if he slowed down.

Sid went in the window at the same time he saw Gary follow Sue into the hallway. The window was unlocked and he had no problem climbing through, but it fell closed unexpectedly behind him with a bang and he froze waiting to see if the noise would draw attention to him. Gary was occupied with Sue and never looked back.

Sid saw cooking pots and hotplates, all dirty near the window even though it was the family room, and knew the guy was already trying to make the recipe. One large pot in the center of a coffee table was half full of something that really stunk and looked like pizza vomit.

There was so much garbage spread around Sid sighed, feeling defeated before he even started looking for the recipe. He dug through stacks of dirty magazines and newspaper trash on the table and floors. He threw the cushions off the couch, fan-flipped quickly through a book and an auto repair manual – but couldn't find the recipe!

Out in the hall, with Gary bearing down on her, Sue missed a step and had to roll away from a punch he threw at her, but he was already wheezing with his smokers lungs and would never be fast enough to catch Sue. Suddenly he stopped and after a drag blew smoke at her.

"You little punk kid! You're just trying to get me away from my apartment!"

He turned and ran as fast as he could back to his apartment never dropping his precious cigarette. Sue tackled him once, but he stepped on her hand as he fought to get away. He left Sue sitting on the floor cradling her hand with angry tears in her eyes. She started screaming to warn Sid. A little old lady peeked through a crack in her door and slammed it quickly, and a man's voice from across the hall yelled "Shut UP!" through a door.

Sid heard Sue's warning and ran for the window, but he tripped over some of the garbage on Gary's floor and lost precious seconds. Gary came in the doorway of his apartment. "Another one!"

The window jammed when it slammed shut and was stuck! As Sid tried to force it open, Gary threw his cigarette and it landed in the pot full of vomit-like stuff. The fiery explosion that followed, blasted Sid through the window, frame and all and out on the fire escape. The force of the blast pushed his helmet forward off his head, singed his hair and the flash burned through both of his shirts baring his back to the heat.

Tobey startled and put his arm over his face to protect his eyes from the falling glass. He looked up in time to see Sid's helmet falling, with Sid falling right behind it. As Sid went over the railing off the fire escape, he managed to hang on to part of the railing. He was stuck in a precarious position hanging backwards, facing away from the fire escape. He couldn't use his feet to climb back up and could barely hang on.

"Tobey help me!" he screamed.

The blast also loosened the whole fire escape structure and Tobey could feel it swaying when he ran the rest of the way back up to help Sid.

It took all of Sid's strength to hang on and it seemed like an eternity before he felt Tobey trying to pull him back over the railing. During the emergency Tobey's phone rang, it was Sue, but he needed both hands to hang onto Sid and couldn't answer. Tobey's back was getting very hot, with the flames still shooting out the window Sid came through.

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Sue didn't feel the full force of the blast but still got thrown against the wall. She jumped up and saw Gary running down the hall. Flames were shooting all the way out in the hallway.

She put up her arm to protect her face from the heat, and considered trying to go in after Sid, but she couldn't even see past the flames and really hoped he had already gotten out when she warned him. The apartment was burning like it was fueled by rocket fuel with a loud hissing noise.

"SID! TOBEY!" Sue screamed! What if they were still in there! Maybe the fire escape – I gotta try! She took off running to the stairs to get back down and out to the fire escape, if he hadn't got out she hoped Tobey could have still gotten in that way to save him. She called Tobey's phone as she went, but he didn't pick up!

Sue looked up as she came around the corner and saw Tobey struggling to pull Sid up from his precarious position over the railing. From where she was it looked like the flames were licking right up Tobey's back.

"NO" she exclaimed as she leapt nearly to the second floor in one leap to land on the fire escape. She climbed quickly, but Tobey got Sid pulled back over and they started down before she got there.

With just that little bit more weight on the structure more bolts pulled out of the wall and it swayed. Sid managed to start climbing down on his own and Tobey let him go first so he could watch him. Sue realized how much damage the fire escape had taken, and held still when she saw them coming down.

Sue gasped when the fire escape structure swayed again. Sid was hanging onto the ladder, but Tobey almost fell off the platform. "Hurry! Guys!"

"Ai-ya." Sid mumbled, "I am hurrying."

The fire escape was coming down for sure! It made a horrible screeching metal sound as it came away from the wall and folded in on itself. It was coming down in two very large pieces. Sid jumped down the rest of the way, and landed in a roll, the pavement digging into his burned back. He landed panting on his stomach, his teeth gritted against the pain.

Wearing Sue's strange shoes, Tobey missed his jump and went down head first with the platform he was on. He somersaulted forward and pushed off with his feet in the last second before the platform above crushed him. He landed in a run and got away from it just as it crashed down behind him.

They could hear the sirens were very close now. "Sid, can you bike? We gotta get out of here!" Sue cried.

"Yeah, I'm ok." They helped Sid up and ran to their bikes. Tobey stood behind Sid again and they just made it around the corner before any of the emergency personnel saw them. "Oh man! Sid your whole back is red!" Tobey was careful not to touch his back while they biked.

Tobey felt the back of his own head. "NO! My luscious hair is singed! It's all curled up and smells like barbeque! I'm really gonna get that guy!"

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Gary was sitting calmly in his car behind a bus stop across the street watching the chaos. He saw the kids get away. The other residents had gathered across the street.

He took the recipe out of his robe pocket and grinned, showing all of his tobacco brown teeth. "Well, I guess they really want this back!" Gary started the engine and followed Sid, Sue and Tobey.

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Once a little distance was behind them, Sid had to stop and catch his breath. Sue and Tobey were worried about him because he had started coughing uncontrollably.

"I got a lung-full of smoke or heat or something." Sid sat on the curb and coughed some more. Tobey touched his shoulder and looked under the edge of his shirt where the blisters stopped. "Nana will have something to make you feel better."

Sid couldn't answer him for the coughing fit he was having. Sue sat by them too. She took the opportunity to call Nana. They didn't notice the old car with Gary in it pull over down the block to watch them.

Nana could hear the coughing in the background over the phone. "Sue, is that Sid coughing?"

"Yes Nana."

"Get him home as quick as you can - call me back if you have any trouble and I will come to you." When they started off again, Sid switched with Tobey because he couldn't pedal anymore.

Gary followed them back to Wu's. Now he knew where they hung out at least, and he suspected they lived or worked there since they went in the back.

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The dining room was busy and Sid didn't want to scare any of Mr. Wu's customers. He knew they all three looked like an accident looking for a place to happen, and he couldn't stop coughing! So they went around back go in through the garden.

Sid was coughing harder, and it was almost constant. Before he made it through the garden, he had a coughing spell that put him on his knees. Sue stayed by him and Tobey ran to get Nana. He held Sue's hand and whispered 'Mei Mei' in-between violent spells of coughing.

"Breathe as deeply as you can into this bag." Nana instructed. "You will inhale the aroma from the roots and flower petals inside that will help clear your lungs of the burns and control the coughing. In minutes it should start to reduce the inflammation." He was almost lying down on his back when Nana got to him. She mixed some herbs and magical ingredients as soon as she heard how badly he was coughing through Sue's phone.

Sid looked frightened as he continued to cough violently into the bag, but did as he was told and in a about forty seconds, he was breathing better and coughing less. Sue helped held the bag over his nose and mouth while he propped himself up on his elbows so his burned back wasn't on the ground.

After a few minutes he spoke through the bag. "Ok Mei Mei its better thanks." Sue handed the bag back to Nana.

"Thanks Nana, that was really scary – I thought I was done for when that stuff blew up right behind me!"

"You were extremely lucky. It is too bad Gary has already figured out part of what it does. And you didn't find the recipe?"

"No, but hopefully it was blown up too."

"I doubt we will be that lucky. He probably keeps it on him somewhere and escaped with it."

Nana looked at Sid's back and told him to go take a cool shower. When he got out, Nana spread another herbal mixture on his burns. Amazingly the burns weren't bad. She told him to leave his shirt off and go lay down on his stomach for a while, which he was more than willing to do. Whatever she put on his back cooled and soothed it so much by the time he woke up from his nap, he could see in the mirror that most of the redness was gone.

When Sid got to the kitchen, Nana told him that Sue and Tobey were out making deliveries with instructions to look for Gary as they went. She was keeping watch in Wu's and out back in the garden while Mr. Wu and Barney went about their usual business.

"What do you want me to do Nana?"

"Are you feeling well enough to join them on the streets? We have to find Gary."

"Yes Nana, but before you said he figured out only part of what it does?"

"Come sit with me." They went out and sat in a booth. They were speaking softly so they weren't concerned about others sitting around them.

Nana almost whispered, "From what you told me it really went up out of control. He ignited it right in the pot he cooked it in by lighting it off. If he figures out how, he can direct and control the explosions."

"Oh man, do Sue and Tobey know about this?"

"No, I want you to tell them. The effect will be similar to fireballs from the spice recipe, but those fireballs are random like the green ones from Eugene's ink recipe. With the recipe he stole, he will be able to control the fireballs all he will need are Fire flowers. They are available this time of year from any nursery."

"What do they look like?"

"Their petals are red in the center and yellow, forming shapes that look like flame with long thin green leaves. Ok Nana. I'll tell Tobey and Sue to watch out for them." Sid left the booth to get out on the street and meet up with the others.

Sid really didn't expect his bike to still be there, thinking Tobey would take it since he was sleeping, but it was still chained to the post out front. He took his helmet back inside and down to the storeroom to crazy glue the chinstrap back in his helmet, and wiped the soot off the back of it, but in just a minute he was on his way.

Gary folded his paper back up and drank the rest of his tea. He had been in the booth right behind Sid and Nana the whole time! After Nana went back to the kitchen, he smoothed his fake horsehair mustache and went out to his car.

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[Tobee continued . . .]


	5. Chapter 5

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 5

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 5

INCOMPLETE. Violence, angst, disaster.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard blames Tobey for getting him kicked off the police force. He tries to frame Tobey for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

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Tobey, still walking or jogging to make deliveries, got to Mr. Thomason's front door for his first delivery of the evening. He rang the bell and Mr. Thomason opened the door quickly. He took one look at Tobey and slammed the door in his face.

Tobey stuttered, "B-But? Your Moo Shu?"

Mr. Thomason yelled through the door. "I don't want a murderer near my house, go away!"

Tobey went back down to the sidewalk and called Sue. He went to sit out of sight in the alley. She was nearby and got there right away. "Hey Sue. He wouldn't let me deliver his food."

"I'll try, don't worry about it."

Tobey listened from around the corner and he was just as polite as he could be to her. Sue smiled looking a little embarrassed when she went back to Tobey. "Come on, let's get the rest of these delivered so we can hunt for Gary."

Tobey nodded and stepped up on her bike behind her. They went two blocks down to the next delivery. Tobey got a similar reaction from Mrs. Stevens who actually slammed his hand in the door when he tried to hand her the bag.

"Ow! And I didn't do it!" he yelled at the closed door.

Sue tried again and had the same result she got before. She even got a big tip that she tried to give to Tobey, but he refused it saying she made the delivery and he just wanted to go back to Wu's.

"What you can do, is stay out on the streets and watch out for Gary. I'll take the rest of the deliveries and join you as soon as I can. Her phone rang, and it was Sid. "Hey Bro! You feeling better?"

"Fine - Mei Mei! Where are you? I have to tell you and Tobey what Nana told me." Sue told him where they would meet him, near her next delivery and Tobey climbed up behind her on her bike. After they met Sid and he told them what was going on, Sue said she still had a couple of deliveries to go, but the nursery on Oleander Street would still be open if they went right away. She told Sid to take Tobey to see what a fire flower looked like and see if they had sold any today.

They agreed to go together and Tobey stepped up behind Sid. Sue ran up the steps and rang the bell for the delivery.

In the distance they heard a small explosion followed by another slightly larger explosion. Sid said it must have been a car backfiring but wanted to check it out on the way to the nursery. They never could find the source of the explosions but learned that the nursery had no fire flowers left. A man with a mustache had bought every one they had less than an hour before.

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In a vacant lot, Gary figured out that to get the explosion to go to the fire flower, you had to 'water' the flower with some of the same recipe. It was like it was drawn to itself. Then where ever he placed the flower a glob of the recipe thrown in the air, and ignited would go to the flower as a fireball before it exploded.

Neither the garden gate nor the back door at Wu's Garden was locked when Gary got there. He had a vase with a single fire flower in it, drinking in the recipe and he got into the kitchen without being seen, by anyone except Barney before he started his scam.

"Customers aren't allowed back here! Who are you?" Barney demanded.

"Oh uh, I'm delivering this! A girl told me to bring it to you."

"To me?"

"What was her name?"

"Um, I can't remember - don't you know your girlfriend's name?"

"Um, Tiffany?"

"Yeah, that was it."

"Great! Thanks!" Barney took the vase and sat it near the sink where he could see it. He tried to give the delivery man a tip, but he was already gone when he turned around. Barney whistled a tune and went back to stirring his lemon sauce.

Gary went out the way he came in and pulled his car back around front. He stopped across the street and with the lights on in the restaurant inside, he could almost see into the kitchen where the boy put the flower. He lit a cigarette, reached into the pot sitting next to him and got out a wet clay-like handful of the recipe. He got out and stood behind his car, getting ready to launch his destruction at Wu's.

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"Sue! Get back to Wu's now! Some guy bought all the fire flowers the nursery had about an hour ago, we have to talk to Nana again and see what she wants to do!" Sid was speaking almost as fast and loud as Tobey did when he was excited.

Sid and Tobey got back ahead of Sue and just as they got about two buildings away, they saw a large orange and red fireball, the same colors as the flowers - heading right for the front of Wu's!

They both yelled "No!" Tobey added "We're too late!" Sid stood up and pedaled as fast as he could go.

The fireball crashed through the center of Wu's front entrance, blasting the glass doors off their hinges and shot through the dining room. The few customers that were left inside ran out the missing front doors. Sid and Tobey got in front of Wu's just as the fire ball turned and went into the kitchen.

"NO! BARNEY!" they both shouted and ran in.

Barney didn't even have time to duck when the fireball exploded on contact with the flower. The force of the blast blew him against the wall and the work table flew at him. The table smashed him against the wall again and he fell behind it. The knives, bowls and cutting boards all landed on top of him. He lay stunned behind the table, but it protected him at least temporarily from the flames.

The explosion blasted Sid and Tobey back out in the dining room. They landed on their backs in the broken glass, but quickly rolled to their feet and ran back to the kitchen. They could hear Mr. Wu yelling at everyone about the noise from the storeroom and Tobey was screaming for Nana. They didn't have any idea where she was.

Tobey ran downstairs to get Mr. Wu and Sid remained to get Barney. The kitchen door was fully engulfed by flames and he could hear Barney weakly calling for help but the heat was keeping him back.

Sue quickly joined Sid. "Sid back up! - watch out – KAI SHREY LA!" Water began to shoot straight from her hands!

"Great Sue, keep it up – soak me down too." She splashed Sid when he went by, he could barely see or breathe in the smoke, but found Barney. The heavy table was on his leg, pinning him to the floor, but Sid quickly lifted it off and pulled him up. Barney was unconscious! Sid leaned him against the wall for an instant before letting him lay over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

Sue stepped back to give Sid room to get out and kept pouring water on as long as she could. Soon the smoke was too thick for her to stay any longer.

Sid could already tell Barney's leg was broken from its appearance while he carried him. He crossed the street and stopped to lay him down on the sidewalk, unknowingly right beside Gary's car. Sue helped make sure Barney's legs stayed straight while Sid lowered him.

Gary stood on the sidewalk a couple of parked cars away. He smiled as he watched all of them, trying to cope with the chaos he caused.

Tobey and Mr. Wu weren't out yet. So Sid ran right back in right away. Sue stayed with Barney for an instant to be sure he was breathing ok, and then followed Sid.

Through the smoke, Sid didn't see the train that hit him. The train's name was Mr. Wu. He ran out the front, just as Sid ran in. Sue jumped to the side just in time to avoid getting run over.

Too scared to even know he had run into Sid, Mr. Wu just kept running until he got to Barney's side. He yelled "My Restaurant!" and stared angrily back at the smoke coming out the broken entrance.

Sprawled in the broken glass again, Sid covered his mouth and nose with the front of his shirt when he started coughing. Sue got there and helped him up.

A similar thing had happened to Tobey when he went down the stairs after Mr. Wu. After the train hit him, it took Tobey a few extra, precious minutes to get back upstairs. He met Sid and Sue at the top. They all three went up to look for Nana. They found her gathering her most precious books.

They helped her carry her books and when they got back to the stairs, they were on fire. Sue tried the water spell again, but couldn't get it to work, so Nana handed her the books and performed a powerful water spell. Dousing the whole staircase quickly. They ran down the least burned edge and got out without more trouble. As they crossed the street, the fire department pulled up followed by police and an ambulance.

Sue kneeled by Barney just as he woke up coughing and asked how badly he was hurt. "My leg hurts, but I'm ok I guess - considering. I'm just sorry that the first flower a girl ever gave me got burned up. Did we have a gas leak or something?"

"FLOWER?" Sid, Sue and Tobey looked at each other. Nana heard him too.

Sid leaned against the car they had all gathered by and watched the firemen across the street dragging hoses back to the kitchen. He was coughing again, but insisted it was different from the last time when Tobey expressed concern. Sue was at Barney's side.

Sid saw a man with a mustache standing off to the side, telling the Police Officer's something. It all looked very dramatic with all the hand gestures he was making. When he finished he pointed straight at Sid. Sid looked behind him and Tobey and Sue were standing behind him on the other side of the car talking quietly about the flower.

The officer was joined by another as they came across the street. Sid realized they weren't heading straight at him. They went around the back of the car and came up behind Tobey on the sidewalk.

"Alright son, hands on the car."

"What?" Tobey was startled to hear such a command from behind him suddenly. Sue stood up.

The Officer made Sue step back. "What's going on?"

Tobey didn't bend over quite fast enough and the officer put his hand in the middle of his back to assist him in leaning on the car and spreading his legs.

"Why are you searching him?"

"We have a witness who said he saw him running away just before the fire started, and he said he dropped these." The Officer showed them an empty one-gallon gas can and fireplace lighter.

"Your witness's name wouldn't happen to be Gary Smith would it?"

"No, his name is Tom."

The younger cop leaned against Tobey's legs holding him tightly against the car as he reached for his wrist. Tobey yelped and couldn't help but tense up. The cop forced his arm up tighter than he would have and made him wince, frantically looking around for someone to help him.

"Hey take it easy! He didn't do anything!" Sid pleaded with him.

"He was with both of us!"

"Even the guy at the nursery probably will recognize him!"

The officer snapped the first cuff on and reached for his other wrist. Knowing he shouldn't move, it took all of Tobey's determination to hold still. But he just couldn't make himself relax and his fists stayed clenched while the young cop forced his other arm up tight and snapped the other cuff on. Tobey cried out and whimpered, but didn't move.

"Tobey try to relax, these officers won't hurt you! It's just a misunderstanding!" Sue tried to calm him down. Nana turned away to make a call. Barney and Mr. Wu listened to the whole thing while the EMT's examined Barney and got him ready to transport.

Mr. Wu stood up and put his hands on his hips. "Well, Tobey, you sure have been in trouble a lot lately. I believed Mom when she said you were innocent the first time, but now this? I know you are jealous of my Barney. Were you trying to get him back for beating you at wrestling?"

"Calvin!" Nana got off the phone just in time to hear where her son was going with his crazy accusation.

"But Mom – he ruined my restaurant, oh – and hurt my son!"

"Mr. Wu! No-I'd never!"

"Take him away officers!" Calvin yelled like he was in charge of this too.

Sue screamed at Mr. Wu! "Tobey didn't hurt anyone! He never would hurt Barney no matter how many times he beat him at stupid wrestling! It was that crazy-man, Gary Smith!"

"She's right Dad! Tobey wouldn't have done this." Barney added quietly, "and wrestling is not stupid."

"Be quiet Barney, father knows best."

Tobey had tears in his eyes again. He was so frustrated and couldn't help but cry and struggle a little as they pulled him up off the car and across the street. It looked like a little overkill as two officers walked Tobey, practically hanging between them, over to the patrol car. Sid jogged alongside the officer on his left.

"Tobey! Don't worry – we can prove their witness was lying! I promise!"

"Get back son, or we'll have to arrest you too, for obstruction."

One of the officer's took Tobey's belt off and handed it to Sid after being sure there were no weapons under it. "Don't want him trying to hang himself with this."

Sid reluctantly took his belt "Tobey wouldn't do that." He looked around and the man he saw talking to them, that must have been their witness, was gone.

The firemen yelling, the sirens as more emergency vehicles pulled up, the sound of the fire trucks and high pressure water soaking Wu's kitchen all combined to push rational thoughts out of Sid's head.

"Nana what do we do?" Sid couldn't think at all anymore. Sue ran up behind him and they both watched the police car pull away with Tobey in it, again. Nana came up between them and hugged them tightly.

Sue started to cry. "Tobey's the one who really needs a hug right now."

Soon after the patrol car with Tobey in it left, another pulled up. This one had Officer Lucas in it. Nana picked up her most precious books, he let her put them in the trunk and then they went to the police station.

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Again, hours later, Officer Lucas pulled up to let them out in the alley. The front of Wu's garden was boarded up and they couldn't get in that way. Fortunately the fire damage stayed only in the kitchen, part of the hallway and staircase, so they were still planning to sleep in their own rooms.

Nana stayed in the front seat and listened to Officer Lucas. "Funny how the witness never showed up to make a statement and since there was no other evidence, they had to let Tobey go again. I'm sure as we investigate farther we will find out this was Mr. Smith. Mysteriously Mr. Smith's apartment burned up too. Looks like he's become a fire bug. Nana, you should take the kids, and your son and grandson out of town for a while. Isn't there someplace you've been wishing to visit?"

"I'll think about it, but we have a lot of work to do." Nana smiled and thanked him for all his help before she got out and joined Sid, Sue and Tobey waiting by the gate.

Sue hugged Tobey again so glad he was with them. When they went by the dining room, Mr. Wu saw them and called his Mom over. Naturally all three kids followed. "How's Barney Mr. Wu?"

"He is upstairs resting. They put a cast on his leg." He was glaring at Tobey.

Tobey saw him. "Mr. Wu! I didn't do anything wrong – I was out making deliveries and . . ."

"That reminds me, before the fire, I had three calls in a row from my customers saying they didn't want you delivering their orders anymore and now, after all of this . . ."

He motioned toward all the damage. "After all of this! You ARE Fired!"

"No." Tobey sat down at the edge of a nearby booth and looked down.

"No! Mr. Wu, please don't fire him!" Sid tried pleading. Sue was speechless.

"I don't want to hear it. If the courts won't put him somewhere to protect the rest of us from his juvenile, criminal behavior – I will take care of it. I don't even want him living here anymore."

Tobey reacted to that, "What? No!"

"Calvin you're over reacting."

"I don't think so Mom. Please stay down her for a few minutes; I want to show you the paperwork I picked up for a military school to ship him too. They have an excellent Boot Camp program first that will break him for sure!"

"Break me? I can't believe this is happening!" Tobey jumped up and ran to his room.

Nana told Sid and Sue, "Go on up and get ready for bed. I will be up and talk to all of you before you go to sleep."

Sid, Sue went to their rooms and took turns in the shower, like always. While Sue showered, Sid went to check on Barney. He was sleeping soundly, enjoying the effects of the prescription the doctor gave him for the pain in his leg. When Sid got done with his shower too, and got back to their room, he could hear Tobey sobbing into his pillow.

"Tobey, I wish there was something I could do to fix this. Come on, you know Mr. Wu will calm down after Nana talks to him. You'll feel better after your shower."

"A shower isn't gonna do it Sid, this is worse than any nightmare I could ever have."

"Officer Lucas will find that 'witness' I'm sure he will find out that it was Gary."

Lost in his own misery, Tobey didn't hear him. "You don't think Nana will actually let Mr. Wu send me to military school . . . do you?"

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Even though Gary didn't go in the police station to make a statement, he was still at the police station and saw Tobey being released and going home with his family.

"This is not fair! That kid must have ten angels watching over him – or maybe devils. Why would angels watch over that evil little punk? That recipe I took from him wasn't for birthday cake – pure evil if you ask me. But I will make him pay - no matter what's protecting him. If I can't get him arrested and kept in jail, I will just find another way to get rid of him and make him as miserable as possible in the process."

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After speaking to Calvin, Nana knocked on Sue's door and told her to meet her in the boy's room. Sid told Nana to come in when she knocked and joined her sitting cross legged on the floor in front of their bunk bed. Tobey reluctantly climbed down off his bunk and sat with them. Sue came in right away and joined them sitting on the floor.

"Nana? Am I leaving?"

"No Tobey, it's not up to Calvin - I am your guardian, but I calmed him down and he has orders to stop giving you a hard time. I know things seem very bad right now, but this will all blow over – with or without effort on our part."

"Yes Nana, I understand."

"What we do have to focus all our effort on is finding Gary and getting that recipe back."

"What if he strikes here again? I can't stand that this happened. I put my whole family in great danger! Barney could have been killed because of me!"

Nana touched his shoulder to be sure to have his attention. "Whoa Tobey! None of what is happening is your fault! You have done nothing wrong. The choices you made when you were younger were not always, um – beneficial, but that has nothing to do with what this madman Gary chooses to do now. We are in the best position to be the ones to stop him, and we will."

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[Tobee continued . . .]


	6. Chapter 6

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 6

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 6

INCOMPLETE. Violence, angst, disaster.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard blames Tobey for getting him kicked off the police force. He tries to frame Tobey for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

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Sid, Sue and Tobey went out early in the morning. They took advantage of the time they had to look for Gary without being interrupted by deliveries. The search was on for Gary or any sign of trouble with Tobey taking turns standing behind Sid or Sue on their bikes.

In front of the market, Sid stopped and teased Tobey, "Man! You're wearing me out, ride with Sue for a while!"

Tobey stepped down and took off running. Sue and Sid wondered what was going on, and looked at each other before they took off after him. Tobey was fast and they lost him for a little while. They split up and Sue found him behind the bakery sitting on top of the dumpster.

She called Sid and told him where to meet them before she went up to Tobey. He looked away when he saw her coming.

"Tobey?"

"Why'd you come after me Sue?"

"You took off running with no explanation, of course were gonna come after you. What's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong! I can't stand being hauled around by you and Sid. I miss my bike, I miss my shoes – a mad man is after me and putting you all in danger. I just can't stand it."

Sid coasted up and stopped. "Nana called, she has some news for us from Officer Lucas."

"Tobey?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's go." Tobey slid down off the dumpster and started walking. He stubbornly refused a ride from either one of them and started jogging back to Wu's.

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When Sid and Sue got to Wu's, Officer Lucas was still there. He and Nana were sitting the dining room. Sid and Sue got to use the new glass doors to come in.

Sue was impressed; Mr. Wu bought much nicer ones than were there before. "Nice doors!"

Tobey came in soon after them, totally exhausted. He put his hands on his knees and bent over trying to catch his breath. Nana told them to sit down with Officer Lucas and went to the kitchen to get some water for all of them.

Mr. Wu tried to follow her out when he saw a police officer in a booth. "I want to hear what Tobey did now! You can't keep secrets from me!"

"Calvin, Go!" Nana still had the mom influence over her son and Calvin grumbled before he went back to supervising the workers rebuilding his kitchen. They could hear Mr. Wu was yelling about the size of the nails they were using.

"Better Calvin should be yelling at them." Nana sat the water glasses down for everyone at the table and sat next to Tobey and Sue.

Sid asked Officer Lucas, "What's going on?"

"I thought you should know about what happened today at the station. That lawyer, Mark Lewis, the one in the office Tobey was found in came to the police station this morning, and he was with Gary Smith."

"What - are they friends now?" Sid asked sarcastically.

"It gets better! They filed a report, supposedly for the insurance company stating that a very valuable item was missing from Mr. Lewis's office since Tobey allegedly broke in."

"I didn't take anything, I took nothing that belonged to Mark Lewis!"

"I know Tobey. Lewis brought Smith with him as a witness. I don't know what they were up to, but I don't believe they were just making a report for insurance. Lewis said it was a very important document that was missing and wanted to know if anything was found on you when you were apprehended."

"Then Mr. Lewis introduced me to Gary Smith, who now calls himself a private investigator. He said he's hired him to find his 'valuable document'."

"But Nana, Gary Smith has the reci . . . um-Rutabaga-Ow Sue." Sue elbowed Tobey in his bruised ribs and immediately realized what she did and apologized. Tobey winced and apologized too, realizing what he has almost said in front of Officer Lucas.

"What is this valuable document supposed to be?" Nana was playing it cool.

"He never would say exactly what it was, that's why I don't think his insurance will pay off for its loss, if there was anything missing at all."

"I thought you should know that Lucas or Smith may be paying you a visit, or perhaps spying on you. Since he is calling himself a private investigator, he will use that as an excuse to harass you, and he has a lawyer in on it now. None of you should go anywhere alone, and I will suggest again, Mei Hua, that you take your family away for a vacation until we can solve this. I'm sure he still blames Tobey for getting fired, and Tobey told me about their history."

"Thank you for your concern Officer Lucas, but we will be fine. There is just too much going on here for us to leave right now.

"Everything that's going on here right now is exactly why you should leave now." Officer Lucas tried again to reason with Nana.

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After Officer Lucas left, Nana, Sid, Sue and Tobey went out in the garden to talk privately.

"So, Lewis and Smith have partnered up! What do you think they're really up to Nana?"

"I think they have different goals, and one doesn't know what the other is doing. Gary teamed up with him to try and get Tobey in more trouble, and give himself a legal way to stay out of trouble. Mark Lewis wants his recipe back, and thinking you took it, hired Gary to help him get it back."

"Oh Nana, that means more trouble for sure!" Sue

Tobey tried to laugh about it. "I'd like to see them try! I don't think I could be in anymore trouble!"

"Don't say that!" Sue scolded him, "Things could be worse!"

Sid interrupted and added thoughtfully, "And Smith is lying to Lewis. He is the one that is in possession of the 'valuable document' and he's only pretending to help Lewis."

Nana worded it another way. "He's just trying to use Mr. Lewis's legal expertise to keep himself out of trouble while he continues to harass us."

"This is getting too confusing!" Tobey whined and laid back on the stone walkway.

"And with all the magic fireballs that have been flying around, I am sure Kong Li knows that another recipe has been in use and will be after it as well." Nana warned them all and stood up to go back in.

Tobey sighed, because he let himself get caught during a simple mission to retrieve a recipe, there were potentially three different nasty men after him and his family! "We can't let our guard down, even for a moment."

"Your right, you three have to be on your guard at all times."

"You too Nana! We can start keeping watch at night. We'll take turns sleeping."

"You three get your sleep. I am used to being up all night researching and using the kitchen when Barney and Calvin aren't there."

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They next morning they had no luck finding more clues, except the other nursery near the edge of Chinatown was sold out of Fire Flowers too. They got back to Wu's just in time to watch the construction crew that Mr. Wu hired unloading their trucks. To stay out of the way, mostly to stay out of Mr. Wu's way, they went around and came in through the garden.

Nana brought them out some lunch to the garden when she saw them parking their bikes. She sat on the benches with them while they ate and showed them a picture she found in the phone book of the lawyer, Mark Lewis so they would have an idea of what he looked like. He was a tall, thin man with nearly white-gray hair and pale skin.

Mr. Wu came out and glared at Tobey before he spoke to Nana. "Mom, you told me to tell you when they were ready to start repairing the gas lines. You wanted to go down with them? They need to get in the storeroom now."

"Yes Calvin, I will be right there."

Tobey got up enough courage to ask again. "Mr. Wu! Do you have anything I can do for you? I really need the money!"

"You caused all this! With all the money this is going to cost, I won't even be able to pay my bill at the Jasmine Spa and Bath House."

"But Mr. Wu! I'm innocent and I am saving to fix my bike and I already pre-ordered Dragon Robot 8 and everything!"

Nana tried to reason with her son too. "Calvin, insurance is paying for the repairs."

"Well some of them, but not the new additions that I have decided we need now. We must offer a wider variety of options for our customers to make up for losing business while the repairs and remolding is completed. I ordered a pizza oven and a huge espresso machine and we are remodeling the kitchen. It will help! You will see! We will be more successful than ever."

Tobey thought a moment and pointed out, "Barney will be laid up for a while with a broken leg - won't you need someone to fill in for him when you reopen?"

"I knew it! I knew you were after Barney's job all along! Forget it, I fired you and even if I can't kick you out because of Mom, I don't have to let you work in my restaurant."

"Calvin! Come in here!" Nana was at the back door already and had heard enough to not allow Calvin to keep bothering Tobey.

Sue and Sid saw Tobey staring over at the pieces of his bike by the gate. "Now I'll never be able to get my bike fixed."

"Tobey, 'never' is a long time – of course you will get your bike fixed, it will maybe take a little longer, or come about differently, but it will happen - be patient."

Tobey hung his head and went over to sit by his bike's remains again. Sid ran up to his room and got all his money out of his shoebox before he met Sue in her room. Then they joined Nana in the store room while she supervised the construction workers. She insisted on being down there with them so she could watch over the magic ingredients she stored there.

Sid and Sue had almost enough money between them from all the extra deliveries they had from not going to school to fix Tobey's bike. Nana agreed to give them the difference. Sue distracted Tobey with food while Sid took the pieces of his bike to the bike shop. The bike shop agreed to rush the bike repair after they begged and Nana gave them extra money. They promised to have it put back together that day, but the paint wouldn't be dry until the next.

Later, while Sid and Sue were on deliveries, Tobey panicked when he found the pieces of his bike missing! He jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Wu found the parts and got rid of them.

Sid and Sue didn't realize why Tobey was so sad again when they found him sitting on a crate behind the Bakery again. He was so upset about something he wouldn't talk to them about it. They both thought Mr. Wu had something to do with it.

"Tobey! What are you doing out alone? Officer Lucas warned us to stay together! What if something happened to you?"

"Take it easy Sue." Then Sid spoke to Tobey, "Hey man, what happened."

"Sorry. It doesn't matter." Tobey got off the crate and started walking home. Totally lost in his thoughts, he walked the whole way with Sue and Sid circling behind him.

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Sid went on his bike first thing the next morning to pick up Tobey's bike. He rolled Tobey's bike, shiny like new next to his own with his new helmet tied to the seat with a bow. Sue kept Tobey occupied so Sid could sneak his bike in and it would be a total surprise!

Nana met Sid in the dining room and showed him a new pair of shoes just like the one's Tobey melted. She bought him a size bigger to allow for his growing, and put them under his bike.

When they were ready, Sue came to the dining room with Tobey walking in front of her. Her hands covered his eyes and he complained the whole time if she was paying some kind of trick on him it was really mean and . . .

"Shhhh Tobey!" She took her hands away from his eyes and he saw his bike! He squealed and ran to it sliding the last ten feet on his knees! He hugged the seat and back wheel. Then he jumped up and hugged Sue and Sid so tight they couldn't breathe!

"My Bike! But how? You guys are so great! And a new helmet and shoes too! Wow!" he stopped talking to catch his breath and put his new shoes on at the same time!

Sue explained, "We couldn't stand to see you so unhappy."

Sid playfully pinched his arm, "You were really pathetic, you know. It may have to count for the next two Christmases and your next birthday, but we were happy to do it . . . dragging your butt around town on my bike was breaking my back!"

Tobey laughed! Nothing could bother him right then! "Thanks, Sid-Sue-Nana! This is the best thing anyone's ever done for me!"

He unwrapped the helmet to just put it on to get the feel, and found his wristbands inside it. He paused just to look at them before he sighed happily and put them on.

"Thanks Sid!" They all hit the streets looking for Gary, Kong Li, Mark Lewis or flowers. Mostly, Tobey was just enjoying riding his bike. He felt sure if he did run into any or even all of their enemies even all at once, he could beat them all, alone and with one hand tied behind his back now that he had his bike!

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Sue and Sid came back first and before they even had their helmets off, Mr. Wu was yelling "Sue, Sid! Deliveries!" Tobey was riding behind them, jumping everything he came to.

They left their helmets on and went to the kitchen to gather the deliveries. "This big one is going to the new 12 story office building down town."

Sue volunteered to take the 'big' one and Sid took the other three going to different places. Sue insisted she would be fine alone going downtown and all. There would be lots of people around. Sid still made her promise to call when she got there and call again when she was leaving and he promised to call her a couple of times too.

Mr. Wu came out of the kitchen to see them off, making an exaggerated motion to turn away from Tobey he carried on, "Hey Sue and Sid, it's kinda nice having you TWO around all day – since we re-opened, we've never had so many orders to deliver before! The calls are starting before noon! When you go back to school, I may have to hire someone else that can deliver around the clock!"

"Whatever you say Mr. Wu."

They were still very angry with him for being so mean to Tobey. Their friend was having a hard enough time coping with what was going on, without any more negative input from him.

Sue and Sid stayed together as long as they could before they had to go their separate ways. Tobey was trailing along someplace jumping ramps and piles of construction materials through a construction zone. Sue became lost in her thoughts.

It would be silly to live at Wu's and work someplace else but she was sure they would have no trouble getting jobs working for someone who yelled less. When this was all over she was planning a strike, demanding Mr. Wu re-hire Tobey. Sid would strike too she was sure. But just in case Mr. Wu wouldn't give in, she entertained the idea of finding jobs somewhere else.

She wondered if Cousin Melvin owned a business, maybe they could work for him? Sid flying past her on his bike snapped her back from her thoughts to reality.

"Slowpoke - hurry up let's get this done! I want to make enough tips with all these deliveries that I can buy Tobey's game for him. We can do it, working all day like we have been!"

"Boy, aren't you generous! I'm saving for art supplies and when are you planning to find Gary and the recipe?"

"Whatever, nothing's gonna happen if you don't get a move on Mei Mei." Sid flew around the next corner heading for his next delivery. Tobey, really enjoying the ride, followed about thirty seconds behind him.

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When Sue got to the office building, she chained her bike up next to the entrance. She was downtown after all and things crawled out from under rocks downtown in broad daylight – humanoid things that stole bikes. She gasped and stood in the entrance with her mouth open when she went inside.

The lobby and down the hall as far as she could see was lined with pots full of Fire Flowers!

"No!" She exclaimed and ran to the security desk.

"Excuse me. Did someone deliver these flowers recently?"

"Yeah, he came in with the rug service driver. He delivered twelve of these flowers as part of the rug service company's promotion for April fool's."

"Oh how nice for you – April fool's – that's just sick."

"What?"

"Nothing, um, we had a report that these are infected with mites and gnats and um - worms! I'm here from my school's FFA program. Our class will rid them of the bugs for you and bring them right back."

"Well ok whatever. The guard really couldn't have cared less, but he did move the flower off his desk, just in case it did have bugs. Sue hurried and called Sid and Tobey at the same time! Then she started putting the flowers and pots in plastic grocery bags that the guard had saved in his desk. The boys met her moments later and fanned out in the building to find the rest of the twelve flowers.

After a minute of searching, they found nine of the fire flowers in pots and two in vases. Sid recognized the pizza-vomit smell from Gary's apartment and knew Sue had guessed correctly. Unfortunately the three flowers still missing had been taken into individual offices, admired by those who took them. They would have no way of knowing which offices they were in!

Sue and Tobey put the ones they found in the bags and with them hanging on their handlebars took off for the ocean. Sid stayed behind to search the upper floors for the other three flowers.

Gary sat in his car almost a mile away, just to test the accuracy of the magic. He got out of his car with a burning cigarette stuck to his lower lip and a full five gallon bucket of the soft clay like recipe. He casually leaned on the car getting ready to start igniting globs of fire.

Tossing one at a time into the air, he lit them off with his cigarette and they took off, shooting through the air like comets. He was in no hurry, and stopped to light another cigarette, answer his mobile phone and scratch his butt in-between lighting the fireball off.

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Racing their bikes toward the ocean with the flowers, Sue and Tobey heard a noise behind them that sounded like a propane torch burning. They looked back over their shoulders at the same time and saw multiple fireballs coming after them.

"OH CRAP" Tobey exclaimed!

"TOBEY HURRY!" Sue screamed! They stood up to pedal faster, the fireballs gaining on them with each turn.

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Sid was on the seventh floor when the fireballs crashed through the entrance on the ground floor. The fireballs turned up and crashed through the ceiling in three different places.

"Ai-ya . . ." Sid heard the first distant-sounding explosion from another floor and people screaming just as he opened a door to an accountant's office. The receptionist greeted him, but then yelled at him when he grabbed the flower off her desk. He turned to run out but slammed on the brakes to run back. A fireball shot through the door after him.

The receptionist screamed and ran out of the office. Sid threw the flower - pot and all through the window and the fireball followed it out. It exploded just outside the window and knocked him back over the receptionist's desk.

After the explosion, he stood up and saw that most of the damage had missed the building, except for the broken window. He saw singed places on his clothes and realized how close he came once again to getting blown up! He immediately ran for the next room, the accountant's office was through the adjoining door and just as he expected the accountant had another flower on her desk.

The accountant screamed and ran out of the office. Sid made a dive for the flower and landed on her desk, the flower fell off the desk - just as the fireball shot up through the floor, the blast went off just under the edge of the desk. The blast tossed the desk with Sid on it at the window. The desk was too big to go through the window and slammed against the frame. Sid's back and helmet broke the glass, he couldn't hold on and fell out the window!

He grabbed for whatever he could, and found himself hanging from the edges of a Satellite TV receiver mounted to a narrow ledge just under the seventh floor. "Ai-ya . . . I must be on the south side of the building, what luck I'm having today!" he sounded a little sarcastic even to himself.

Sid swung his leg up and caught the edge with his heel, but when he tried to pull himself up, the ledge crumbled and his legs fell back down, the sudden force loosened the mount that supported the Dish over his head and brick sand went into his eyes. "Ow!" He couldn't see for the stinging, and started blinking to get his eyes to tear up and wash the sand out.

He screamed for help even though he knew the occupants of the offices were already evacuating and he knew Sue and Tobey were disposing of the rest of the plants. He hoped they were alright. He had no trouble getting tears to wash his eyes out when he thought about Tobey and Sue being chased by fireballs.

"They had to get away – they are very fast!" He carefully repositioned his hands to hang on tighter when he felt the wind kick up behind him. It blew more sand and dirt around him. To protect his already irritated eyes, he pressed his face against his arm.

But the wind didn't stop, and blew around his body like waves. It was also accompanied by warm moist air that felt like something very big was breathing down his neck! Blinking he turned to look and even with the glare of the sun in his eyes, he could make out the shape of a huge blue-black dragon! Sid screamed and tried harder to climb up, but now the fire was shooting out the window above him and the intense heat made him fall.

The dragon caught him in his talons, wrapping all four of them carefully around his middle. Sid stopped yelling, he was sure he heard Nana's voice telling him it was ok. As he shot through the air, suspended under the dragon's chest, he turned over enough to look up and saw Nana leaning over from the dragon's back to give him a hand up.

Once the dragon could feel that Nana had a tight hold on Sid, he let him go and Nana pulled him up on the dragon's back behind her. Sid was holding on so tight, Nana had to push his hands down a bit so she could breath. "Hang on Sid, we're going to find Sue and Tobey."

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Tobey and Sue continued on their bikes right out on a pier, they screamed at people standing and fishing off the pier to "get down" and "run away" as they shot through the crowd with the fireballs right behind them. They were approaching the end of the pier, and Tobey, slightly behind Sue could feel the heat on his back from the lead fireball.

They took the bags off their handlebars as they went and when Sue screamed "NOW!" in unison they threw the flowers as far as they could out over the water. The second the bags left their fingertips they laid their bikes down to slide to a stop and duck under the fireballs as they went over their heads.

Sue's bike continued to slide on the wet wooden pier for a few more feet. Tobey's went even farther. He and his bike went by Sue even after she stopped. She heard Tobey scream as he slid off the end of the pier just as the first of six explosions began to discharge under the surface of the water in front of the pier.

Sue stayed low and crawled out to where Tobey disappeared over the edge with ocean spray and large chunks of seaweed smacking her in the face.

Tobey got one elbow around a beam just under the edge of the pier, and his other hand was still holding on to his bike's front tire! His bike was totally submerged, and though lighter in the water, the current stirred up by the six explosions in a row threatened to pull his bike away from him and him away from the pier. He was submerged up to his ribs in the swirling sea. Wave after wave slammed Tobey into the pike and slammed his bike against his legs.

With three fireballs still unaccounted for, Sue hurried to reach for Tobey, she was still short a foot, so she scooted out farther and reached down to him again as another fireball shot dangerously close to her before hitting the water only a few yards out. It sent another wave in that slammed Tobey and his bike hard against the pike making him scream.

He looked up at Sue but couldn't release the beam that he had his elbow over, and wouldn't let go of his bike.

"Tobey I can't pull you and your bike up together! You have to let it go and give me your hand!"

"No I won't let it go – you guys just got it fixed for me, don't worry I'll hand my bike up to you first, then pull me up!"

Sue still argued as the bike came up toward her before Tobey did. She grabbed onto it, knowing that if she dropped it, he would dive in after it! Another fireball singed the hair that stuck up from behind her head as it went over. Ocean water steam rose from her head from the heat. She cried out and ducked, more from fear than pain as she pulled Tobey's bike up.

Once it was safely lying next to her on the pier, she reached back over for Tobey as another wave slammed him hard enough he almost lost his grip. The bike had been weighing him down and without it, he was tossed around harder. His side hurt after the last wave and was having more trouble hanging on.

Sue called his name and reached for him again, "Come on NOW – your bike is safe!"

Slowly, painfully, Tobey reached up and caught her hand, but the last fireball hit the deck a few feet behind Sue and blew the boards apart right behind her. She grabbed on to steady herself and squeezed Tobey's hand even tighter. But the resulting wave generated by the fireball hitting the water under the pier, slammed Tobey from the other direction and forced their wet hands apart. Tobey was swept away from the pier and went out with the wave.

"TOBEY! SWIM!"

He thrashed and hit the water's surface with his hands a few times before the undertow yanked him under. Sue rose up just enough to get a leg under her and used it to push off after him, already lost in the swirling water!

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[Tobey Continued . . .]


	7. Chapter 7

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 7

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 7 [incomplete]

Violence, angst, disaster. Very mild language.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard blames Tobey for getting him kicked off the police force. He tries to frame Tobey for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

The need to get the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe back from the very dangerous 'Gary, the ex-security guard', becomes greater as he figures out how to use the recipe and starts to use it to hurt more people, even in public buildings.

Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe, so named thanks to 'loveless-kittykat'. The literal meaning is 'to direct fire bomb.'

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The ocean currents swirled around Sue tossing her like a dead fish caught in the rapids. She was frantically looking for Tobey who was pulled under after a series of explosions, just under the surface of the water. They were set off by 'Gary' with the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe. After the first dive she came up for air without Tobey.

During the second dive, she saw him through the cold, murky darkness. Hanging head down, Tobey's arms and legs were tangled in knots of seaweed and his eyes were closed. He swayed limply in the current with the seaweed and it looked like he had already passed out.

Sue fought the currents and swam down to him, almost out of air herself, she had only untangled his legs, using her pocket knife, but she refused to leave him – even to go up for air. A strong current slammed into them and she hugged Tobey's legs tightly to keep from being pulled away from him. The seaweed left on his arms kept them both from being washed farther out to sea.

Hand under hand, she frantically pulled herself down along his body to free his arms. She looked at Tobey's face for any sign of life after his first arm was free and saw two huge glowing yellow eyes behind Tobey's head! She screamed underwater using up the last of her air and tried to pull Tobey away without freeing his arm.

Giant scaly feet with talons wrapped around Sue and pulled her away from him! She tried frantically to pull the huge clawed hand off of her waist with one hand while she reached for Tobey with the other. Another clawed hand grabbed him around his stomach from behind and they started going toward the surface. The force pulled his arm free of the last of the seaweed and instant later they were above the water's surface with a huge splash!

Sue looked up and saw Nana leaning toward her, with Sid sitting right behind her. Above the dragon's soaring wing she could tell Sid was yelling at her, but couldn't understand him. Tobey was hanging limply in the dragon's other clawed hand and she reached for him but couldn't grab him. Nana held her hand down to her and as she reached for her, she found she was distracted. She was in awe as she looked at him, from the dragon's head all the way back to the tip of his tail – he was huge and what a wingspan!

The dragon had black wings that resembled a giant bat. She found herself sitting behind Sid still focused on the dragon's size and relieved that he 'happened' by with Nana and Sid. But her awe and relief faded when Nana pulled Tobey up, unconscious. She put him lying face down across her lap. Sue reached around Nana's waist he help her hold him on.

The dragon flew so low his talons skimmed the waves. He flew very fast towards a small island and Sue recognized it first. It was Alcatraz! The tour boats were going and coming regularly from one side of the tiny island, but the dragon stayed low over the water and skimmed right over the rocks and under the trees on the far side landing out of anyone's sight. Even a boat going by on that side of the island, couldn't have seen where he landed. They were in the mouth of a rather large cave that went in under what once was the exercise yard for the inmates.

The dragon moved his wing and got down so they could get off. Sid vaulted off his back and stepped back over to lift Tobey down. Sue and Nana were right at his side too as Sid put Tobey down on a moss-covered rock. Tobey wasn't breathing and even Nana couldn't feel his heart beating.

Sid started chest compressions, tears running down his face, and Sue took Tobey's helmet off, tilted his head back, and started blowing into his mouth with his nose pinched off. The dragon watched silently, and after five breaths Tobey still hadn't responded. Sue got the hiccups trying not to cry, but she swallowed them and filled his lungs with air from hers again. The dragon's eyes, met Nana's and she received unspoken instruction from him.

Nana scooted back a little, and told Sid and Sue to back up as well, but they didn't respond, concentrating on saving Tobey. The dragon's large head started to move slowly between Sid and Sue over Tobey. They had no choice but to lean back, away from Tobey's still unmoving body.

Sid fell backwards off the rock and landed on his butt on another rock. "Wait! We have to keep going – Tobey's not breathing yet!" They looked at Nana and saw that she was watching calmly so Sid and Sue followed her example. Sue reached back over and held Tobey's hand.

The dragon rooted his nose under Tobey's shirt and the razor sharp spines that started between his nostrils and went up between his eyes, ripped the cloth baring his chest. Into the air over him, the dragon spit out a ball of fire that made a noise like he hocked a loogie.

The dragon's fireball silently burned blue and orange. At first it was bigger than a basketball. He balanced it on his long snake-like tongue while it got smaller and the flames changed. It rotated through all the colors of the rainbow displaying a psychedelic light show in the shade under the trees. When the ball began to hover on its own and it was about the size of a walnut it began to burn intensely with a white hot glow, the dragon lowered it to Tobey's chest by pushing it down with his tongue.

"NO! What are you doing to Tobey?" Sue cried out thinking it would burn him, and reached for it to knock it away – not caring if it burned her. The dragon had ultimate control over it and waited patiently as she discovered the fireball felt cool to the touch!

"Wow. Um-Sorry." She said, and got out of the way again. The dragon seemed to think it worth the time for her and her brother to see he meant their friend no harm.

The dragon allowed the ball to rest in the center of Tobey's chest, over his sternum while he carefully repositioned his tongue over it. He gently pushed the ball of pure white energy into Tobey's chest right through his skin! Tobey didn't react at all.

The dragon was satisfied that his task was complete and lifted his head up. He looked at Sid and then Sue and backed away before he crossed his front legs like a hound dog resting on the porch after the hunt. He circled his tail protectively around the humans and the tip twitched with pleasure. Sid and Sue got closer to Tobey and Sid felt his neck for his pulse. Sue saw him get tears in his eyes, but he was smiling! He announced, "He has a pulse!"

After only a moment, Tobey's unseeing eyes shot open and he gasped loudly as air reentered his lungs chasing death right out of his body. Sid and Sue were both close enough that they could see when Tobey's awareness and sight came back. He started coughing in spasms and a gallon of water came out of his mouth and nose. Tobey painfully held his chest as he sat up.

"Where's my bike?"

Sue grabbed Tobey and hugged him without a word. He returned her hug, wrapping both of his arms tightly around her. Sid wrapped his arms around both of them.

Nana wiped a tear out of her eye just in time for Sid to ask her, "Nana isn't this Alcatraz?"

"Yes, I believe it is."

"But how can your magic work outside of Chinatown? Outside your barrier that keeps the magic in?

There is more than one kind of magic in the world kids – this is more like 'Dragon Power' and our friend here, said he would take you back to your bikes for me. And don't worry, most people will not see him, or you three while you are with him.

The dragon definitely had a proud expression on his face as he lowered his head and moved his folded wing back so they could all climb back on.

"But Nana, how will you get back?"

"Don't worry about me kids. I have important business to take care of. Just get back to your bikes and meet me at home." Tobey, sitting closest to the dragon's tail, waved at Nana as they flew away staying low along the waves again.

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Thankfully, when they got back Sue and Tobey's bikes were still on the pier. A bag lady named Rita was on the pier looking for her long lost son when the dragon flew in and hovered almost over her head like a helicopter landing. She looked up and smiled. "Have you seen my son Great Master?" Rita was the only one that heard the dragon's answer. She turned her shopping cart around and went back the way she came, humming and mumbling happily to herself.

Sue and Sid slid down and landed on the deck by Sue's bike. Before Tobey slid down he leaned towards the dragon's head and told him "thanks, for everything!" The dragon wrapped his tongue around Tobey's head giving him a giant 'dragon lick' that made his white bangs stand straight up!

Sid laughed at his hair and stood behind him on his bike while they went back to the office building. Sid's bike was still chained up by the entrance in the middle of the chaotic aftermath of the fires. The police officer who was controlling the crowd didn't want to let him pass to get his bike. The firemen were still running ladders and hoses everywhere.

Sid went around and approached from some bushes on the side. He ran to his bike and unlocked the digital lock before the police officer even saw him. By the time the officer saw him, Sid was already on his bike, waving at him. He yelled "Thanks" as he pedaled away with Sue and Tobey. The officer raised his eyebrow in annoyance.

"What do you suppose Nana is doing?"

"I hope she is cooking up some powerful help for us to fight this recipe and bring Gary down."

"That's probably what she's doing! Some powerful magic." Sue looked hopeful and relaxed all the way home, while Tobey and Sid felt like they were shaking inside. "I wonder if Nana knows any unicorns. Wouldn't that be awesome? I'd love to see a white one with a golden horn!"

That was when Sid and Tobey knew she had gone off to fantasy land. Her own happy place! Tobey especially wished he had a happy place to go to until this was all over.

They got home and sat out in the garden. It was almost dark and they were exhausted. Sid told them both, if Barney called for a delivery, he would take it so Sue could rest. He took his own advice and stretched out in the cool grass.

"I'll go with you, even if Mr. Wu won't let me deliver anything – we aren't supposed to go out alone." Tobey took off his torn blue shirt and rolled it up to use as a pillow. He wrapped his torn white tank top across his front when he stretched out on his stomach on the bench. Sue was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed as though meditating.

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They had rested only a few minutes when a patrol car with the lights flashing, but no siren came slowly up the alley and stopped behind the gate. They all three opened their eyes at the same time to look for the source of the red and blue flashing lights. The car was behind the wall, the lights reflecting brightly off all the nearby surfaces. It stopped and they heard two car doors slam as the officers got out. A deep voice warned anyone in the garden to remain where they were.

"Oh no, Sue! Sid – what do we do?"

"We cooperate with police – it has to be another mistake, don't worry."

The officers came in the gate and looked at the kids like they were sizing them up. Sid stood up and joined Sue and Tobey who had already jumped up, but they stayed where they were, as instructed. They walked between Sid and Sue telling them to step aside. The shortest officer wearing a thick mustache told Tobey to lean forward on the bench with his hands and spread his legs apart.

"NO! SID - SUE - this can't be happening again!"

"Ai-ya . . . Tobey?"

"Officer's, what's going on now?" Sue took as step closer, but the tall officer blocked her and motioned for her to stay back. "Don't speak unless we tell you too." he warned.

Tobey obediently bent forward, spread his legs and stood as if frozen while the officer's hands roughly patted him down. It wasn't so much 'patting', as 'slapping'. He realized that this cop seemed really angry. The officer leaned forward and pushed his torn shirt over his head.

"Hey!" Tobey objected to the hands under his shirt. Satisfied he had no weapons under his torn tank top, the officer let go, but left it lying up across the back of Tobey's neck. While he rather rudely checked his pockets and patted his legs down.

Sue stood nearby watching the way the officer handled Tobey and was less than impressed with his method. He was dirty, and hair seemed a bit long too. She thought it pretty nasty – and rude for a police officer to look and act like he did.

"Where were you this afternoon?" he poked Tobey in the back with two dirty yellowed fingernails.

"OW! I was with my friends riding bikes and playing with our pet dragon!"

"You punk, you better pocket that smart mouth."

"Hey, don't threaten him like that! Ease up-we won't give you any trouble! Why are you here?"

"Shut up or you will be in trouble too. We're taking your friend downtown. There was a fire in an office building downtown and several witnesses reported seeing a teenager with white bangs and a blue shirt running out just before the building exploded into flames." Tobey's ripped blue shirt was still next to him on the bench.

Sue repeated, "Several Witnesses? It couldn't be!"

Sid argued, "There's no way! Or there must be another guy with white bangs and wearing a blue shirt. It wasn't Tobey, he was with us."

"Then maybe you were in on it with him." The taller of the two officers stepped up in front of Sid and pushed him back.

The cop actually pushed her brother! Sue saw these two cops were getting out of hand. There was something very wrong here. She excused herself. "I'm gonna go see if Nana is home yet . . . hang in there Tobey!"

She ran for the back door even though the tall cop was yelling at her to come back. Once inside, she couldn't find Nana, so she went to ask Mr. Wu if he had seen her. Mr. Wu ignored her question about Nana's whereabouts and yelled about no one working and told her to take deliveries. When she tried to run back out to the garden, Mr. Wu blocked her insisting on deliveries. She took out her phone and tried to call Nana while he stood in front of her yelling.

Barney looked pretty emotionless, glad only that his dad wasn't yelling at him for a few minutes.

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The short officer wrapped his hand around Tobey's wrist and with a sharp yank he pulled his arm up behind his back, leaving him with only one on the bench to lean on. Tobey screamed and started shaking. He almost fell forward when he tried to bring his legs together to balance. The cop was keeping his legs apart with his own legs. When the cop leaned forward to whisper something in his ear, Tobey could smell him. "Man! You stink like cigarettes!"

"Shut up." he yelled and mashed Tobey's knee into the stone bench. Tobey cried out and tried to pull away. The cop leaned in farther and whispered in Tobey's ear, "I have you now punk."

The smelly cop slammed Tobey to the stone bench with a hard twist of his arm and an elbow in his back. Tobey banged his head on the bench and cried out for Sid.

That 'twisted arm move' felt all too familiar and he started to panic and screamed for Sid again. There was a knee in the middle of Tobey's back, and his other hand was pulled roughly behind his back too. Tobey felt him taking his wristbands off and screamed when he felt the cuffs snap closed too tightly. So tight they dug into his skin. The cop threw his wrist bands on the ground.

Sid was already trying to get to Tobey, but was blocked by the other cop. "You guys aren't real cops!"

Realizing it too late, he tried to run around the fake cop to get to Tobey, but the imposter pulled out his nightstick and took his legs out from under him. When Sid rolled over and looked up at him, the 'cops' hat had fallen off, and he recognized him as the lawyer, Mark Lewis!

Both arms handcuffed behind his back, Tobey was pulled up off the stone bench and turned around. He saw the other cop take Sid down.

"Sid! Run find Sue!" Tobey twisted and ducked and Gary couldn't hold onto him. He jumped into the air and kicked back with both heels like a mule! He knocked Gary backwards into the bushes and his mustache and fake uniform hat came off. Tobey almost landed on his feet but without his arms to balance, went to his knees.

It took Tobey an extra precious moment to get up and run, and Gary was almost back on him as he ran toward Lewis and Sid. With his arms cuffed behind his back, he jumped up sideways and knocked Lewis down with a full body slam. They both flew over Sid and landed next to him. Sid jumped up and planted his foot in Gary's stomach before he reached down to help Tobey up.

Lewis pulled out a taser and aimed it at Sid's back. Tobey saw the weapon and knocked Sid out of the way just in time to save him, but was hit in his chest and gut instead by the darts. He fell, his body convulsing while Lewis kept his finger on the trigger longer than necessary.

Sid got up and lunged at Lewis. "Tobey! Dammit STOP hurting him!"

While Sid was distracted, Gary hit him from behind with his nightstick and knocked him back to the ground. Lewis finally stopped zapping Tobey and Gary walked over to him. Gary dragged him to his feet to take him to their car.

Tobey stumbled along backwards, trying to recover from being tased while Gary dragged him to the car. Tobey could see Sid was down, and struggling to get up. Lewis hit Sid in the middle of his chest and knocked the wind out of him. He continued to hit him over and over with the nightstick while Sid turned over on his stomach to try and crawl away. He hit him across his back several times before getting him in the head. Only once in the head was enough. Sid stopped fighting and went limp with Tobey watching.

"NO! SID! - - HELP! - - NANA! SUE!" he started shouting and Gary put his hand over his mouth. Tobey tried to bite him and only got his arms twisted up higher behind his back for his effort.

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Nana didn't answer her phone and Sue had no idea where she might be. She didn't dare tell Mr. Wu that there were police officers at Wu's garden again trying to arrest Tobey. He was already yelling and continued to yell after she ducked under his arm to get by him and run to check upstairs for Nana one more time.

By now, Sue believed Mr. Wu would have put handcuffs on Tobey himself and would be NO help at all.

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Once he was dragged out in the alley, Tobey saw that the car wasn't a police car. It was just some old junked car with a blue and red flashing light on the roof like you could buy in a gag shop. Tobey landed on his head in the back seat, and his legs fell between the front and back seats. He felt Sid land on his back when he was thrown in face down. The doors were shut and locked and the car sped away.

Tobey was stuck leaning over the seat with his hands cuffed behind his back. Sid was unconscious lying face down with his head and chest on Tobey's back. Gary leaned back over the seat, pulled Sid's hands together behind his back and left him handcuffed where he was.

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When Sue gave up and returned to the garden, the cops were gone, the boys were gone, and Sue found the fake police lights in the alley. She looked around some more and found Tobey's wristbands and drops of blood on the stone walkway where Sid's head was hit by the nightstick. Sue didn't know who's blood it was and took a moment to wish for it to not be Sid or Tobey's.

She called Officer Lucas and breathlessly told him Sid and Tobey had been taken and she needed him. He was not too far away and promised to get there right away. Sue's mind was racing as she looked around the garden for more clues. She found the officers hats and something that looked like a large hairy caterpillar. "A mustache!" she said out loud. Those guys were wearing disguises! They weren't cops!

I should try to call them, no, look for Sid's GPS, don't try to call them. If they do still have their phones I don't want to alert their kidnappers to them. Sue's hands were shaking while she started pressing buttons on her phone. "I don't see Sid! What do I do?"

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In the back seat, Tobey put his fingers in his back pocket and got his phone out, without looking at it he put it on silent and activated the GPS. It was hard to move his arms and hands with Sid lying on top of him. While he was trying to execute his plan, Gary swung the nightstick back behind the seat and hit him in the hip. Tobey cried out and tensed his muscles, frozen for a moment.

"Keep still back there." Gary commanded, but he didn't look back to see what his captive was doing, and Tobey managed to finish. He dropped his phone on the floor and using his knee rolled it under the seat. He thought he successfully left a trail hoping Sue would think to look for it.

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They parked the car in front of an abandoned building and Lewis carried Sid in over his shoulder. Gary picked Tobey up, still conscious and put him over his shoulder. He picked up a bucket of the pizza vomit, Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe in his other hand. Tobey cooperated, not wanting to be tasered or something again. Things were bad enough without them both being unconscious.

The elevators were out in the old building, so they were carried up the stairs to the second floor. There were four floors in the building and Lewis really wanted to take them all the way up, but Gary was already out of breath and refused to climb any higher. If he hadn't been carrying the lighter of the two boys he probably wouldn't have made it that far.

The second floor was just one giant room except for some framing materials and wooden pallets in stacks. The walls had all been knocked down, and the only structures were where the pipes and electric conduits ran floor to ceiling in several places. The glass was broken out of most of the windows and cold wind was blowing through. Tobey thought it a good thing, when he got his chance someone would hear him screaming for help.

Lewis held Sid with his fingers wrapped around his throat. Sid was still unconscious. He threatened his life if Tobey tried anything against them. Gary dropped Tobey off his shoulder, and immediately yanked him up by the handcuffs. Tobey scrambled to get his feet under him and get the pressure off his arms.

Gary let go of him, only to take a step back and kick him as hard as he could in the gut. Tobey doubled over and grunted. Gary grabbed his arms again and pushed him close to a heavy six inch iron water pipe that ran from the floor to the ceiling. It used to be in the wall, before the wall was torn down.

Standing behind Tobey he pushed him with his chest tight against the pipe. Gary took one cuff off a wrist and moved his hands in front and around the water pipe. He snapped the cuff closed on his wrist again. Tobey watched Sid the whole time, the only reason he didn't go kung fu all over them.

Once they had Tobey secured, they put Sid on his back with his head next to an electric conduit pipe a few feet away from the water pipe. His hands went over his head and were cuffed again around the conduit. Tobey watched, standing up while they did it, he pulled at the cuffs wishing he could get both of them.

"What's going on? What are you planning to do?" Tobey demanded.

Gary Smith spoke first. "You're gonna watch your friend die, you will kill him for us. But don't worry! You'll die too before you go to jail for murdering him."

"There IS NOTHING you can do to me to make me kill or even hurt Sid!"

"Don't worry, you won't have to lift a finger I will do the hurtin' and the killin'."

He briefly showed Tobey a typewritten letter and explained, "In this letter, you confess how you killed your friend, Sid Yee, and your intent to commit suicide after you did it. It was typed and printed on one of the computers in your school library, so they will know you did it!"

Tobey struggled and pulled against the handcuffs and they cut into his wrists. "No! Let us go now – You don't know who you're messing with!"

Smith chuckled "Oh yeah? Who am I messing with?" he wacked Tobey in the back of the knees with his nightstick and dropped him to his knees around the pipe. His cuffed wrists slid down the pipe and his arms rested on his thighs. Tobey leaned against the pipe moaning.

Lewis interrupted the show Smith was putting on. "Don't sound so full of gloom and doom."

Then he spoke to Tobey, "There's a way out of all this. If you tell us where the recipe is that you took from my office, we will let you both go." It sounded to Tobey like they were going to try a good cop, bad cop act like on TV.

Smith looked annoyed at his 'partner'. He didn't intend for either of them to get out of this alive. He wanted nothing more than to make Tobey pay for him having a rotten life. He watched Lewis and Tobey to see what happened next.

Tobey looked as smug as he could while handcuffed and his legs throbbing with pain. "Well that's easy, if all I have to do is tell you where the recipe is, we are practically out of here!"

He raised his arms around the pole and pointed at Gary. "He has the recipe! He's had it since the night he found me, um . . . wandering around your building."

"You lying punk!" Smith screamed at him and started toward him. On his way he explained to Lewis, "He is just trying to get us to fight with each other! Of course he has it! He's used it to destroy three buildings in Chinatown, including my own apartment!"

Smith bent down and punched him right in the kidneys. He screamed and hugged the pipe.

Smith grabbed a handful of his white bangs to pull his head back and look right into his face. "Stop lying or I will kill your friend right now!"

Tobey glared at him, "I'm not lying!" he looked hopefully at Lewis, "Search him! Why would I blow up Wu's? I live and work there, or I used to work there!" Tobey corrected himself with a sigh.

Smith kicked Tobey in the leg and when he leaned over next to the pipe in pain, he brought his knee up against his cheek right under his eye. Tobey pressed his cheek on the other side of the pipe to try and hide his face from another hit.

Smith shouted at him even though he was standing right over him, "And my apartment blew up! Why would I blow my own place up?"

In spite of the pain, Tobey yelled back, "Because you're a moron! You didn't know then what the recipe could do and you blew up your own apartment!"

Enraged, Smith wrapped his fingers around Tobey's neck and started to pick him up, intending to choke him. Tobey yanked on the handcuffs wishing he could get free to rip him apart. He shut his eyes as his hands closed tighter on his throat. It was impossible to breathe anymore.

A voice from the shadows observed, "There seems to be some question as to who has the recipe."

"What? Who's there?" Smith shouted and dropped Tobey.

Tobey slumped against the post, looked over as Kong Li stepped into the dim light. He ignited fire in his palm that made shadows play across his face making him even more evil-looking. Smith backed away from Tobey to stand by Lewis. "You have no right to be here, stay out of our business!" Smith was yapping like a scared small dog.

Kong Li laughed maniacally, "You really have no idea who you are dealing with, and frankly – I believe Tobey! I will search you both thoroughly for the recipe before I dispose of all of you!" Tobey wasn't sure if he should be happy that Kong Li believed him.

Kong Li ran at Lewis and Smith with his cape flying out behind him. Smith made a dive for the recipe and Kong Li sent Lewis back twenty feet with a strike to his chest from his staff.

Smith tripped and almost landed in the bucket of Zhǐ rán shāo dàn. He rolled over and came back up with a handful of the goo. It took him three tries with his lighter, but got it lit. He didn't think about what he would do with it. He had no flowers prepared for it to go to so he threw it at Kong Li.

Kong Li dodged it! When the fireball hit the floor, instead of exploding it erupted into intense blue flames. In no time a circle ten feet across on the floor was on fire and it started a pile of pallets like they were kindling. Kong Li tackled Smith, and Lewis went running at him. Kong Li held Smith down while he shot lightening at Lewis. The lightening threw him back across the room again.

While the adults fought amongst themselves, Tobey stared at Sid for a moment wishing he would wake up. Sid's arms and head were the closest to him. He thought the pipe Sid was tied to looked like it was made from heavy plastic, instead of the iron that the water pipe was made from. He thought if only he was awake, maybe Sid could break it and get away. "Ok", he said out loud as he had an idea.

He 'walked back on his knees as far as he could with his feet toward Sid. Then he stretched down on his stomach with his hands stretched way out in front of him. He kicked off his shoes and scooted back with his hips until his feet were right in Sid's face! With the balls of his feet, he rolled Sid's head back and forth and pushed on his nose with his toes.

"Dammit! Come on Sid! My foot up your nose wakes you every other time!"

Finally Sid moaned and rolled his head to the side away from Tobey's feet. "Phew! That is rank!" he sounded groggy.

Kong Li threw Smith and he almost landed on Tobey making him yell in fear. Then he started yelling at Sid.

"Sid! Sid! Hey? Wake up! We're in trouble!"

Smith jumped back up and ran for the stairs. Kong Li stood on the other side of the flames with the recipe he found on him in his fingers. Lewis saw that his partner had the recipe the whole time and enraged, ran at Kong Li to get it back.

Sid startled when he realized his hands were cuffed over his head and frantically looked around. "Tobey!" What's going on?"

The big boys are fighting over the recipe. Kong Li has it at the moment. Gary just ran to the stairs and disappeared and the building's on fire. Other than that it's been pretty quiet with you sleeping.

"Ai-ya . . ." Sid uttered when he looked around and realized Tobey had reported the situation pretty accurately. The breeze blowing through the broken windows was keeping the smoke cleared out pretty well and he could still see the battle going on well.

"Sid! The pipe you are tied to looks like plastic. Do you think you can break it?"

Sid looked and realized it was plastic. "But Tobey its electric conduit! If I break it, I could get electrocuted!"

"But Sid the building is abandoned, would the electricity still be on?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to chance it – isn't there another way?"

A haunting, terrible scream drew their attention away from their problem. Lewis caught in a violet field of magic at Kong Li's fingertips, slowly morphed into another form! As his human form seemed to crumble, the pieces fell away as a hundred black rats with red eyes and ran to all corners of the room before disappearing in cracks.

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Officer Lucas picked Sue up in the alley behind the garden. After getting in the car, she realized she couldn't even give him an accurate description of the car, except that she thought it was a patrol car, but she told him about finding the fake lights in the alley. She gathered what she could think of. She even had tiny vials of Black Liquid recipe with her.

As he drove to the end of the alley, and stopped wondering which way to turn, Sue finally found the GPS signal from Tobey's phone. She had been checking for Sid's figuring he would be more likely to have his turned on.

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_**Smith got to the car and got it started, but only got a block and a half away before the car ran out of gas. He cursed Lewis for not getting gas before this started. He got out and looked back. He could now see a little smoke coming from the building. **_ _**Even though he was sure the fire would finish Tobey he still wanted to ruin his reputation. He put on his best frightened, concerned citizen act and found a uniformed police officer. He was standing by his patrol car talking to a teenage girl. They were pointing at his car, but he didn't realize it. Gary ran up to him and told him he saw a boy with a white patch in his hair beating another boy to death and threatening to start a fire – he pointed down the block at the smoking building. **_

The police officer he found was Officer Lucas. The girl was Sue. She took off right away, running to the building even though Officer Lucas yelled at her to wait for him! He arrested Gary Smith on the spot, read him his rights at light-speed, handcuffed him to a nearby bike rack and ran after Sue. Sue got there way ahead of Lucas and nearly ran into Nana on her way in. "Wait Sue, Kong Li is up there. I have another way in and a spell that should help." Nana patted her bag and they went to the back of the building.

Officer Lucas entered through the front and ran up the stairs. He burst through the stairway door and ran at Kong Li just as he tossed the whole bucket of Zhǐ rán shāo dàn into the fire. It instantly burst into a huge fireball spreading out over his, Sid's and Tobey's heads when it went to the ceiling.

Kong Li vanished into a sparkly red cloud with a wave of his cape.

"I guess it's time to try it and get electrocuted, or not, or not try it and burn to death." With that grim, confusing thought, he rolled over. The only way Sid could get up was to roll over on his stomach, with his arms crossed in front of him. He pulled himself up to his knees first. Once standing, he backed away as far as the handcuffs would let him. He lifted his leg, preparing to kick the plastic pipe. His fingers were crossed that Tobey was right, and an abandoned building wouldn't still have the power turned on.

Tobey, on his knees scooted away from the fire as far as he could. Since he was closest to the heat, and realized there was little hope of being uncuffed from the metal pipe in time, he pressed his face to his arm to try and get away from the heat. He still expected to burn to death soon enough. He clenched his fists and pulled against the cuffs as hard as he could, he hands feeling the intense heat the most. I just started learning magic. It's not fair to get burned at the stake. They don't even do that anymore, do they?

Suddenly everything stopped! Even the flames stopped flickering! Officer Lucas was frozen in mid-air after the explosion the arm of his uniform on fire, flames stopped like it was a photograph. Tobey froze, pulled as far back as he could get with his head down trying to get away from the heat for a few more seconds. Sid with his foot up and poised for a side kick, his hands crossed in front of him, just before he would crush the plastic pipe he was cuffed to.

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Nana stood in the middle of the room with Sue right behind her. With everything stopped around them, they were the only ones moving. Nana went to Officer Lucas first, while Sue ran to Tobey and Sid. Even frozen in time, the fire was still putting out intense heat and Sue gave it a wide berth.

Ready to catch him, Nana got under Officer Lucas and touched his hand. He instantly yelled and fell. With Nana's help he landed on his feet and she quickly patted out his burning uniform sleeve. He realized he had been on fire, in mid-air and jumped back, pulling off his uniform shirt. Once that was off, he saw Nana standing close, watching him calmly. He grabbed her and hugged her tight. "I don't know what you did, but I'm sure you just pulled my ass out of the fire! Thanks Mei Hua."

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Sue touched Tobey's hand and when he came back to life he began struggling to get away again. His face still pressed into his sleeve he didn't see Sue. "Tobey, hold still." He looked up in disbelief. "Sue! Get me loose!"

"I will, but you have to hold still so I don't melt you with the Black Liquid." He squeezed his eyes shut, hands holding on to the pipe while she quickly poured Black Liquid on the chain in the middle of the handcuffs and the metal instantly melted. She dropped the rest of the vial and it melted the floor next to the pipe and fell through.

"Tobey you're free."

He opened his eyes, squealed with joy and hugged her. "Come on, let's get Sid." Tobey stared at the 'frozen' unmoving fire and then at the frozen, unmoving Sid while he stood up and went with her.

Get ready to catch him if he falls. "Right." She touched her brother's hand and caught his leg, just as the plastic pipe cracked and exposed the heavy wires inside. Sparks flew out through the cracks and instantly stopped in mid air, sparing Sid an electrocution. "Ah! Tobey!" he growled at him before he realized he was ok and Sue was holding his leg.

Sue put his leg down and Tobey steadied him. "Hold still, this is Black Liquid." Sid was confused, and looked over at the fire. Nana and Officer Lucas walked over, looking pleased and in no hurry. When he felt his hands come loose from the electric wires, he quickly pulled them from around the pipe, not completely trusting that he wouldn't be shocked. Once away from the pipe, Sue hugged him, and Tobey joined in.

"Come on you three, we need to get out of here so this can play out." Nana motioned for them to go first, and they jogged out not wanting to be in there another second. Officer Lucas stayed back with Nana. As soon as they got to the first floor and out the door, the explosion continued with a deep boom. Flames shot out the windows all the way around the building and Nana didn't even duck as she walked away.

On the way back to the patrol car, a block and a half away Tobey and Sid realized how terrible they felt. Sid found blood in his hair and felt dizzy. Sue saw him wobble and walked with him. Tobey looked down and saw all the bruises on his chest, stomach and ribs. He had bruises around his neck too where Gary tried to choke him. He was afraid to see how bruised his legs were.

The now familiar sound of sirens from fire trucks and police were right behind them. Six emergency vehicles stopped in front of the fire. Officer Lucas called in and asked for another car to transport a suspect. Gary Smith sat on the sidewalk still hugging the bike rack he was handcuffed to.

"Ah-Ha! The handcuffs are on the other hands!" Tobey raised his own eyebrow at that statement. "Yeah, you heard me!" Officer Lucas guided Tobey to sit on the back seat he told Sid to get in on the other side. He got out his keys and took the broken cuffs off of their wrists while he looked them over. We better get an ambulance over here for them. he radioed it, but also waved down the one that had just come around the corner.

"No, I don't wanna go. Nana, can't you fix us up?" Tobey whined. Sid and Tobey both agreed they wanted Nana to fix them.

"I think so, but I want you both checked out by a doctor too. Lean out here Sid. I want to see where the blood in your hair and running down your back is coming from."

"What? I'm bleeding?" Sid turned sideways in the seat and leaned out so she could see, Tobey gasped when he saw the blood soaked neck and back of his friend's shirt.

Sid winced and whined a little when Nana's fingers explored the cut she found in his hair. Tobey was watching and said "Ow" too. He seemed to be having sympathy pains. The ambulance Officer Lucas called for stopped behind his patrol car and the EMT's jumped out and came over. One went to Sid and the other to Tobey. Officer Lucas told them quietly that the boys had been kidnapped and badly beaten, but he didn't know all the details.

Gary Smith started yelling too. "What about me? That cop and those kids beat me up! Look! Look at all my bruises – take pictures! I'm going to sue all of you!"

"Sorry kids, I read him his 'rights' – I guess he gave up his right to remain silent, unfortunately." Officer Lucas went over to speak to his 'suspect' and start his report. Tobey smiled, glad Gary was caught at least and didn't have the recipe. He cringed when he thought about what he saw happen to the other one, Lewis.

"Nana!" Tobey climbed over Sid with the EMT trying to take his pulse. Nana leaned in to listen when he signaled he wanted to whisper in her ear. He told her that Kong Li escaped with the recipe. Nana told him she knew, and not to worry as soon as they were up to it, they would get it back.

"But what if he uses it!" he said out loud.

"I doubt he will use it like Gary was. It wouldn't serve his purposes. Relax now and let the kind gentleman examine you."

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[Tobey Continued . . .]


	8. Chapter 8

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 8

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 8 [incomplete]

Violence, angst, disaster. Very mild language.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard blames Tobey for getting him kicked off the police force. He tries to frame Tobey for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

The need to get the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe back from the very dangerous 'Gary, the ex-security guard', becomes greater as he figures out how to use the recipe and starts to use it to hurt more people, even in public buildings.

Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe, so named thanks to 'loveless-kittykat'. The literal meaning is 'to direct fire bomb.'

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The EMT leaned into the patrol car's back seat and guided Tobey back against the seat by his shoulders. He took what was left of his torn tank top off of him and counted his pulse and respirations before he put the stethoscope on his chest. Tobey held still, but wasn't paying any attention. He was watching what the other EMT was doing with Sid.

Tobey saw he was shining a light in Sid's eyes and counted his respirations more than once. He pressed a thick wad of gauze to the back of his head and told him to put his head back against the seat and to keep it there. Two firemen were setting up lights so they would have a well lit area to work on their patients. Sid tried to stand when the EMT treating him said they wanted him out of the car.

"No son, don't move. Let us know if anything hurts." He and a fireman helped Sid out of the patrol car and got him on a stretcher. They sat him on the ground nearby and had him sit up long enough to take his shirt off. Sid didn't want them to rip his favorite shirt. Joined by a police officer, who covered his legs with a thermal blanket, all three were working on him. A heart monitor went on his chest, a blood pressure cuff went on his arm and the EMT set an IV catheter and started fluids.

Tobey got more worried with each thing they saw them do to Sid. Sue sat quietly near her brother, but out of the way looking very worried too. One of the police officers came over to the patrol car with more blankets and put one on the ground by the car, and one over Tobey's lap up. The EMT guided him forward a little so he could listen with the stethoscope on his back.

Tobey didn't like the looks of what they were doing to Sid. "What's wrong with him?"

"Let them examine him Tobey." Nana heard Tobey and came over. She sat with him in the back seat where Sid had been. Tobey tried to look past Nana to see Sid.

"And let him examine you." She saw the EMT was having trouble keeping up with his squirming to get him examined.

"Tobey, look at me." The EMT said. "Follow my finger with your eyes." Tobey started to, but he looked back over at Sid. "Tobey, attention here - son!" Tobey looked back at him. "Where do you hurt the most?"

"My chest, my side, my guts." He was holding his abdomen just under his belt, but otherwise very distracted from his own condition.

"Lean over on the seat on your back and undo your pants." Nana scooted over so he'd have room. She stayed on the edge of the seat and rested her hand on his cheek. "Hold still Tobey, let him make sure you are ok!"

"But . . . Sid!"

"Sid's not going anywhere, they are making sure he is ok too – you will know if something happens I promise."

Tobey did what he was told, sort of, the EMT had to unzip his pants. He was still thinking about Sid. The beating he took from Lewis was brutal; it scared him to see it and scared him all over again to remember it. Tobey was barely paying any attention to what was happening to him, until he winced and cried out when the EMT's fingers pressed on a darkly bruised spot in his abdomen.

"Do you know what happened here?"

"I got kicked."

He pointed to the holes in Tobey's skin, two in his chest and one in near his belly button. Each looked burned around the edges. "How did you get these?"

"Oh those must be from the taser." Tobey answered him, but still wasn't paying attention.

"The cops tasered you?"

"No, Lewis did, one of the bad guys."

Tobey looked up to watch Nana slid out, but she leaned back in and cupped his chin in her hand to hold him still while she kissed his cheek. "I'm so sorry you went through all that Tobey."

"Sid had it worse! Can I go see how he's doing now?" Nana looked at the EMT for an answer for Tobey.

"Not yet, I need you to slide out on this side. Even though your heart sounds fine and your pulse is good, you said your chest hurts and after being tasered, I want to send a strip to the hospital for the doctors to see how your heart is working."

Just outside the car Tobey laid back on an emergency blanket and the EMT called the hospital. He heard him say that his patient had been tortured with a taser and received a longer and more severe shock that what was usually delivered. Tobey's mind stayed on wondering what was going on with Sid.

A cop took over on the radio talking to the hospital for the EMT while he put the electrodes on Tobey's chest. The EMT repeated his patient's vitals and injuries, and the officer repeated them so the doctors at the hospital could hear. In only a moment the equipment was sending his electrocardiogram to the hospital.

He was only a little aware of the beeps the equipment made while he was being monitored. Tobey could still see Sid, sort of looking under the car. He was laying very still, eyes closed and he heard the EMT examining him had changed the type of questions he was asking. "Sid, can you hear me? Sid! Are you still with us?" He could tell from where he was that Sid didn't answer those last questions.

"What? Sid!" Tobey scrambled to his feet, the electrodes he was hooked to peeling away from his skin, and holding his unzipped pants up with one hand as he ran. The EMT just dropped the blood pressure cuff he was holding in mild frustration.

Tobey got to Sid and dropped to his knees by Sue. "What's wrong with him?" Nana and Officer Lucas joined them.

"He fainted. Hang on." The EMT put the oxygen mask over Sid's mouth and nose and lifted his head a little to put the strap on. Tobey saw someone die once and had seen Sid sleeping lots of times. He could tell, he wasn't sleeping. He was totally limp and his breathing was so shallow it looked like he wasn't breathing. He looked more like the person who had died.

Tobey panicked seeing Sid so unresponsive. "What's that for?"

"We're giving him oxygen, it will help. Your friend is hurt pretty bad. He has internal injuries. His lungs are a little bruised and his blood oxygen level is low. We're almost ready to transport him.

"Transport? Oh man! Sid . . . I'm so sorry."

Sue spoke up for the first time, "Tobey, this is not your fault. Sid wouldn't want you blaming yourself."

Tobey continued to stare at Sid and Sue saw tears well up in his eyes before they dripped down his cheeks. Sue hugged him, guiding his head to her shoulder. He cried into her neck for a few seconds and pulled back to speak. "Damn that Gary, and his stupid friend! Why couldn't I stop them?"

"It ok Tobey." Sue spoke softly, as concerned about Tobey as she was her brother. She hugged him tightly.

"Ms. Wu. We need to transport Sid now." Nana agreed. Tobey and Sue had tears running down their cheeks as they loaded Sid in the ambulance. They called to him to tell him they would see him soon, even though he couldn't hear them. Officer Lucas left for a moment to hand his 'suspect' over to another officer. The other officer would take him in, so Lucas could take Mei Hua, Tobey and Sue to the hospital.

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At the hospital emergency ward, Tobey and Sue sat together in the waiting room holding hands the whole time. Nana sat next to Tobey, and Officer Lucas even stayed for a while. After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse came out to the waiting room and told them they could go in and see Sid. Tobey jumped up and started to run. Sue grabbed him and whispered 'no running in the hospital'.

Sid was still in emergency in a treatment room and a nurse was just taking the oxygen off of him.

"Sid - Buddy!" How are you feeling?"

"Better I guess. Sorry I 'checked out' on you guys."

"It's ok – as long as you're fine now! Is he fine?" Tobey had turned to the nurse. "Sid is fine now right? He can go home now right?"

The nurse, still putting equipment away smiled at him, "He is much better – try not to worry. The doctor will be in to talk to you in a little while."

The doctor told them that Sid was bruised all the way to his core, but there were no broken bones and he would need a lot of rest. He prescribed a blood thinner to help be sure his bruised lungs didn't cause him any more trouble and Sid got to go home with some of the same good pain medication that Barney had.

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It early morning when they got home and Mr. Wu was already up frowning at them when they came in. Nana was surprised to see him awake so early. Mr. Wu watched them all come in and could tell Sid was hurt and very sore. The boys didn't even have shirt's on, and he could see all of Sid's bruises especially. Mr. Wu aimed his first negative comment right at Tobey, like another punch in the face.

"What did you do? Are you fighting with Sid now?"

Tobey screamed in frustration and ran out to the garden. By the time Sue got to the garden, she found his helmet lying on the ground, but Tobey was already gone on his bike. Sue jumped on her bike and took off after him. She could see him a long way ahead of her already.

"What! What did I say?" Mr. Wu acted like he didn't have a clue.

"Calvin! Sometimes you are so insensitive! Tobey and Sid were kidnapped tonight – Taken right out from under YOUR nose! Two men impersonating police officers KIDNAPPED them! They were both tortured and suffered numerous injuries, Sid spent most of the night unconscious, in the hospital and we were all very worried about him.

"Ai-ya." Nana's really letting him have it. Sid mumbled and sat in a booth holding his arm across his chest. He had never heard Nana yell like that.

"But Mom, if there was trouble like this going on here tonight, why didn't Sue tell me when she was here?"

"She was afraid you would say something bad about Tobey, and give him a hard time like you just DID. She knew she couldn't count on you to back them up or even understand. Especially over the last few days, you made Sue . . . you made them all - feel like they couldn't come to you with a problem. And since I wasn't here – the situation turned into something much worse than it might have been."

Nana backed Calvin up to the counter with her finger in his chest. "Tobey has done nothing wrong – and through this whole crisis you have made life even harder on him than it would have been! I am so disappointed in you, to think my son would be so judgmental, impatient and awful to one so much younger than he is."

Now Mr. Wu looked sad. Nana turned her back on him and went over to Sid. She held onto Sid's arm while he got up and walked with him to his room. She made sure he was as comfortable as he could be and gave him his medicine. Once he was in his bed he tried to call Tobey and got no answer. Sid tried Sue next and learned she was still trying to catch up to him and would call back. Soon, the pain medicine kicked in and he had no choice but to fall asleep.

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Tobey was blinded by tears as he flew faster than the wind down the steep hill on his bike and couldn't hear Sue way behind him calling his name. He leaned low going around the next corner and was already going so fast, he coasted right up the next shorter hill. Down the next hill he picked up even more speed. It was a little cold too. He didn't even stop to put a shirt on before he ran out.

Sue could see Tobey for a while way in front of her, "That dork! Riding like that without his helmet - or a shirt!" She was standing, pedaling as fast as she could.

Tobey screamed when his front tire went all wacky in a layer of sand washed out across the street on a curve. His bike went down and he flew off over the handlebars. He landed hard, asphalt digging into his bare back, and rolled down the hill, grunting when he hit the curb.

He jumped back up, "MY BIKE!" and ran back up the hill to it. He pulled it out of the street in case a car would come around the corner and smash it! Tobey lifted it over the guardrail and put it down along the narrow patch of low growing weeds. It looked undamaged, and he felt relieved and suddenly exhausted. He didn't realize how fast and how far he had gone. In fact he wasn't even sure what street he was on. Tobey decided he didn't care where he was, as long as he was alone.

Then he realized how bad he hurt. "Ow! Sid's right, I AM a dork." I really didn't need to crash so soon after Gary and Lewis beat me up I guess.

It wasn't too windy where he was, but the sky continually changed as clouds blew over, white and fluffy and all different shades of gray. The view was beautiful from here. The patch of weeds where he lay was a long narrow strip between the guardrail and a cliff dropping nearly straight now to the ocean.

The sound of waves breaking against the rocks below was so calming. The ocean view was beautiful here, the waves rolling in and the boats so far away. Tobey let himself fall back in the weeds to watch the clouds. The cool weeds felt soothing on his raw, road-rash covered back. He shut his eyes wishing there was someone with him to pick the little rocks out of his back.

Tobey changed his wish remembering how happy he was a few moments ago because he was alone. Concentrating as hard as he could he tried to wish the pain he felt away. Not the physical pain from landing on his bruises again, but the emotional pain of being stared at, of people thinking and saying awful things about him, even people he considered family. It was only one family member, Mr. Wu, but his comments cut him to the bone.

The thoughts about Kong Li still having the recipe didn't bother him as much as people thinking he had done such terrible things. There was a time when he did steal and he would have hurt others for a loaf of bread - but never again. He regretted ever having been that way. The situation seemed hopeless. How can I go home? Maybe I won't - Mr. Wu doesn't want me there anyway. I can still see Sue and Sid, and Nana too sometimes - I hope.

When the road rash on his back, elbows and palms stopped burning, he sat up and brought his hands in front of his face so he could see to pick the little pebbles out of his skin. Just as he pulled a small chunk of wood from his elbow, 'that was more like a log than a splinter', he thought and it got much darker. He looked up, expecting to see a dark rain cloud blocking the sun.

Instead, he saw it was Kong Li blocking the sun. "Shit!" he exclaimed and rolled forward, barely avoiding Kong Li's staff.

"What are you doing here Kong butt-licker?"

"Why Tobey, you seem to be losing your talent for insulting me."

"I've had a hard week."

"I predict your week would even get harder, if you were going to live that long. Just imagine my delight at finding you just when I needed something, or someone, to test the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn on. You have been promoted to be my Guinea Pig."

"Great. At least I'm good for something."

"Awe, you sound down Tobey. I hope you are up to a fight – I don't want to win right away - without opportunity to test out the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe thoroughly.

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Sue couldn't find Tobey anywhere – and he had turned off his phone! Thoughts of him lying somewhere all broken and bleeding after a fall ran through her head the whole time she looked for him. None of his favorite places that she knew of were in the direction he rode away from them, or in the area she lost him in. She tried to call Sid to see if he could think of anywhere to look that she hadn't thought of and Nana answered his phone.

"Sid is sleeping. Remember the doctor gave him pain meds. Even if I woke him, I don't think he would be alert enough to think seriously about anything."

"It's ok, he probably wouldn't know anyplace to look that I didn't already think of."

"Do you need me to come help you Sue?"

"No I'm fine, I will find him. Please stay there and watch Sid, Nana. I feel better knowing you're there."

"Don't worry about us Sue, find Tobey."

"Right."

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"I will stop you right here all by myself! Bring it on Kong Li!"

"Whatever you say."

Tobey didn't even see the recipe. Gary had a bucket of it when he saw it used last. Kong Li just turned his hand palm up, tilted it toward him, revealing something that looked like a wad of bubblegum before he ignited it in his hand and it flew right at Tobey's head!

Tobey ducked to the side and put his arms in front of his face. The fireball changed direction in mid air and still hit him! If it wasn't for his arm, it would have exploded in his face. Instead with a loud bang, it went off against his forearm. Tobey screamed and rolled away. He quickly jumped back up on his feet to face Kong Li again, holding his burned arm.

Tobey sized up Kong Li's battle strategy. The tiny ball and slightly larger explosion, wasn't enough to kill him but like Kong Li said, he didn't want Tobey to die right away. He wanted to experiment with the recipe. "What are you playing with me? Well I'm serious!"

"Sure we can play for a while before I take you out. You see, with the fire flowers added directly in the recipe, I can direct the fireball on the fly with my talent for magic. I need to target like that amateur did. Are you ready for another 'test'?"

Tobey considered running, but not wanting to get hit in the back with one he decided he'd have a better chance if he faced him. He really wanted to avoid getting burned again. He's directing the fire balls, even after they leave his hand. He stood up, facing Kong Li head on, with only his arms up in defense and waited, watching Kong Li's eyes.

Kong Li ignited a fireball in his palm again. He smiled an evil smile and it flew straight at Tobey. This time Tobey held his ground he pushed out with both hands palms forward and concentrated hard. The fireball turned away from him and went over the cliff! It disappeared in a tiny puff of steam in the ocean below. "Yes! Take that Kong Loser!"

"You little brat!" Kong Li started sending fireballs at Tobey one right after the other, then two at once using both hands. Tobey turned the first ones. But they were landing and exploding closer and closer to him! He couldn't keep up. One got him in the front of his thigh, setting his pants on fire. He dropped and rolled avoiding two more and putting his burning pants out. Using as much concentration as he could, another fireball missed him, but hit right beside him and he rolled closer to the edge to avoid it.

The next ones came at him like machine gun fire laying down a line of three rights next to him as he rolled right to the edge of the cliff! He was out of breath, and losing what little focus he had left. An intense blue fireball flew at him and he scrambled away half crawling half running. It hit him in the shoulder and the explosion knocked him down again uncomfortably close to the edge. While Tobey writhed around in pain, Kong Li stepped up and stood over him. I think this was a successful test my little guinea pig. You will be happy to know, I don't need you anymore. It's time to euthanize my little lab animal.

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Sue came flying down the hill on her bike and around the curve just in time to see Kong Li's intense attack and Tobey go down.

"NO!" she flew down the hill, jumped the guardrail and planted both feet in Kong Li's back. Kong Li screamed "This isn't over!" as he fell into the waves below. She landed in the weeds at Tobey's feet and her bike rolled back to the guardrail and leaned against it.

Horrified at the burns and torn up condition of Tobey skin, she kneeled next to him and pulled her phone out to call for help.

"No Sue, please don't call anyone."

"But Tobey, you're hurt again!"

"Its not as bad as it looks." Tobey started to roll over, but Sue stopped him. He was about to roll right off the cliff. She took his arm and helped him scoot away from the edge. When she helped him sit up she saw his shoulder, forearm and the front of his leg were all burned.

"At least let me call Nana."

"No, it's too . . . embarrassing. Nana should stay home where she can help Sid get better anyway. You should be there too."

"I thought we covered this before. I'm not going to let you just run off with no explanation without running after you. Sid would be here too if he wasn't in bed full of medication for his injuries. You should be grateful. It seems like I showed up just in time to save your butt from Kong Li's attack."

"Yeah, you did. Thanks I guess."

"You guess? Tobey." Sue hugged him, being careful to keep away from his burns. It hurt a little when she hugged his road rashed back, but he didn't care. It felt so nice to get a hug from Sue he enjoyed it, even though he didn't think he deserved it much.

Without letting go of him she sneaked on hand in her pocket and got her phone back out. Tobey heard the tones and spoke without pulling back from her hug. "What are you doing?"

"I'm calling Nana, she at least needs to know I found you. She is very worried about you."

Tobey had his cheek resting on her shoulder and tried to wipe his tears without her seeing him. She had a short conversation with Nana and hung up. She dropped her phone in the grass as she hugged him tight again with both arms. After another minute she whispered in his ear, "Are you ready to go home yet?"

"Tobey?" he arms fell from her waist to his sides. Sue shook him gently and called his name again before she put him back down in the grass. His head rolled to the side, his eyes closed. Just as she was about to pull her phone out again, a car stopped on the other side of the guardrail. It was Officer Lucas in his patrol car. "Mei Hua told me you two were out here. She didn't say he was hurt! What happened?"

He stepped over the guardrail and checked Tobey's pulse at his neck.

"He crashed his bike!"

"How?"

"I don't know! He fell just as I came down the hill!"

"I'll call an ambulance."

"No! Not again! Can you just take us home?"

"Of course, are you sure you don't want to take him back to the hospital?"

"I just want to take him to Nana. I think it's what he wants too."

Officer Lucas put Tobey in the back seat. Sue got in and pulled his head up in her lap. She reached over and put the seatbelt around his hips and then put her's on. She spoke to him and tried to wake him while Lucas put their bikes in the trunk and bungee corded the lid down.

Tobey remained unconscious for the whole drive back to Wu's and Sue started to wonder if they shouldn't have taken him straight to the hospital. She called Nana to tell her they were on their way but her phone's battery went dead before she could tell her anything else.

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Sue led the way and Officer Lucas carried Tobey. He waited in the hall while Sue peeked into the boy's room looking for Nana. She lingered a second to watch Sid. It looked like he was resting comfortably. Then she ran to Nana's room and knocked on her door. She whispered, "Nana! We need you! Officer Lucas is here, Tobey got hurt again!"

Nana had been reading, and told them to hurry in as she got up. Sue opened the door and got out of Officer Lucas's way. Nana motioned him to put Tobey on her bed. "What happened to him?"

"Kong . . . he crashed his bike!" Sue whispered and kneeled on the other side of the bed, near his head. Nana nodded. "I see." She went into the bathroom and ran the hot water until it got very hot and then soaked some small towels.

Tobey whispered without opening his eyes, "I'm not hurt . . . much."

"Tobey! Glad you woke up." He looked up at Sue.

"I was always awake, listening to you talk about me, I AM stealthy."

Sue knew he was lying. He sounded groggy and blinked after he opened his eyes and saw where he was.

"I'm home?" Sue thought he sounded disappointed.

"Yes oh stealthy one, you're home where you belong." Sue had her hand in his hair playing with it fondly, until she grabbed a handful and turned his head to look right in his eyes. "Never run off like that again!"

"Sorry, can't promise anything."

"Why not? We don't want anything to happen to you!"

Nana interrupted and handed Sue a short stack of warm wet towels when she came out of the bathroom. "Sue, start cleaning Tobey's wounds, I will be right back with some herbs that will help."

"Ok, Nana. . . . Roll over Tobey." Tobey rolled onto his stomach with his arms down at his sides on the bed. Sue cleaned him up and picked the small rocks out of his back, elbows and palms. Nana came back soon with an herbal salve to treat his burns. By the time Sue and Nana got finished with him, he was clean and sound asleep on Nana's bed. Nana went to get his comforter off his bed to cover him up, and while she was there woke Sid to check on him and let him know Tobey was home.

"That's great Nana, I'm glad Tobey made it home ok. Did he enjoy the elephants at the circus?"

"Yes Sid, he is fine. Go back to sleep."

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Tobey slept all day on Nana's bed. Nana and Sue took turns going up to check on the boys when they weren't busy in the kitchen or Sue was on a delivery. Since Gary Smith had been arrested, and Mark Lewis had turned into rodents Nana let Sue go out alone.

Sid woke up first, the pain medication finally wearing off. Nana saw him coming down the stairs and met him at the bottom. "How are you feeling Sid?"

"Much better. How's Tobey?"

"He is still sleeping. I don't think you need any more of the prescribed medicine but let me know if you are uncomfortable. Go sit in a booth, I will bring you some soup."

Nana sent Sue out with his soup and he asked what happened to Tobey. "He ran into Kong Li alone. If I hadn't got there when it did, he might have been killed!"

"No."

"Yes! Kong Li is using the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe, and Tobey said he is much better at it than Gary was. He doesn't even seem to need the fire flowers to direct it. Tobey was burned in three places and I barely got him away."

"Oh Sue, I'm so sorry I wasn't there to help! Sounds like we could have lost both of you."

"Never happen." Sue didn't believe it, even as she said it. "With you and Tobey healing, how are we going to stop Kong Li? What if he strikes right here at Wu's garden again?"

"I am feeling so much better. My bruises are even fading already. I'm sure it was something Nana did for me. Let's hope Tobey feels even half as good as I do when he wakes up."

"Yeah. If he does we will find Kong Li and get that recipe back tonight!"

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[Tobey continued. . .]


	9. Chapter 9

THREE DELIVERY – SINISTER BALLS OF FIRE 9

BY CRYSTALQUIRT

CHAPTER 9 [complete]

Violence, angst, disaster. Very mild language.

Description: Tobey, caught in an innocent situation that looks real bad, is arrested for breaking and entering. Because of his 'dark' past, a security guard blames Tobey for getting him kicked off the police force. He tries to frame Tobey for more and more terrible crimes to make him pay!

The need to get the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe back from the very dangerous 'Gary, the ex-security guard', becomes greater as he figures out how to use the recipe and starts to use it to hurt more people, even in public buildings.

Zhǐ rán shāo dàn recipe, so named thanks to 'loveless-kittykat'. The literal meaning is 'to direct fire bomb.'

No resemblance is meant for any real living or dead person with the same name as someone in my fic. Of course Three Delivery and its characters are not mine - I am just borrowing them and will be glad to give them back in nearly the same condition they started in.

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Sid, Sue and Tobey had circled on their bikes for hours watching for any sign of Kong Li. Sue caught a glimpse of a shape shifter in that basic generic-looking human form run into an alley. She got off her bike and followed, calling Sid and Tobey to meet her. They both found her on their GPS and met her in no time.

The shape shifter got to the end of the alley and disappeared behind a dumpster. Tobey was dismayed thinking they lost him. "Oh man, what did he do? Change himself to a rat and scurry away?"

"No . . . look!" Sid had to pull the dumpster away from the wall a little. He showed them an open hole in the asphalt where it must have gone. They all jumped down, one after another with Sid being the last to land on the damp earth below.

"What is this? It's not a sewer." Sue took out her phone to tell her they might have found something. If they went any deeper underground she knew they wouldn't have any reception.

"I think Kong Li has been busy carving himself out a new underground lair." It was a long tunnel, the ground raked smooth and slightly downhill, but it was straight and they could see a dim light ahead. In a hurry, they jogged and walked quickly without making a sound and the tunnel opened up into a large auditorium-like cavern. Sitting on the 'stage' on what looked like a throne was Kong Li.

Sid whispered to Sue, "Well, we found him. What do we do?"

"We wait for Nana, just like we agreed." Sue answered just as Tobey started for Kong Li. Sid grabbed Tobey's shirt to hold him back.

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"Hurry up you fools!"

Kong Li had two shape shifters sitting at a table forming the Zhǐ rán shāo dàn into cubes, bigger than the ones he used on Tobey. He sat on a throne-like chair that he had four shape shifters bring down to the cavern for him. The plan he was formulating to get the cookbook back from Mei Hua didn't look good for Chinatown in any of the versions he came up with. For his goals to be met, he couldn't completely destroy Chinatown until he found the cookbook at least.

The shape shifter that Sid, Sue and Tobey followed ran across the cavern and bowed before Kong Li. "It is done my master. They have followed me and are hiding in the north tunnel."

"Very good. You finally did something right." Kong Li didn't even get up from his 'throne' when he heard the news. The shape shifter handed him one of the cubes. He held it flat on his palm and ignited it. The fireball didn't burn him, even though he was holding it.

Sid was still watching from the tunnel and quietly alerted the others. "Kong Li is playing with fire again!" they all peeked around the corner to watch him.

"Oh crap!" Tobey whispered as they watched the fireball fly from Kong Li's hand and fly right at them. It stayed high above their heads as it entered the tunnel but they all three still ducked, and quickly looked up to see that it had gone over them. It flew back up the gradual hill and didn't explode until it hit the ceiling, almost back up to where they came in.

The tunnel collapsed and trapped them! "Sid! He knows we're here! What do we do?" Tobey's voice cracked while he made himself whisper even though he was panicking.

When Kong Li spoke, his voice echoed through the cavern. They had no trouble hearing him even though he was a half football field away.

"Come out and meet your doom little enemies. You have no hope of getting out of here alive."

"We can't go out there, he will blow us up, we can't get out and Nana can't get in! What do we do?"

Sue frowned at Tobey. "First stop listing all the things we can't do, and think of something we can!"

Sid's frightened eyes scared Tobey even more than he already was."But he's right - what are . . ."

Sue put her hand over her brother's mouth. "Not helping."

Sue peeked around the corner made of packed earth and saw Kong Li had stood up off his tall chair and was walking toward them. "Here he comes, get ready!"

"Get ready how - he almost killed me before and he said he was just experimenting! We can't defend against that recipe!"

"Let's run, maybe the tunnel isn't totally blocked off, and it'll put some distance between us and him." Without a better plan, they took off and ran. At the same time, Kong Li released another fireball. Sid sensed it more than he saw it and ducked, shouting a warning to the others. Sue was in the lead with Tobey close behind her. They ducked but kept running. It went over their heads and hit the rock a little way in front of them.

"Go back!" Sue yelled as the rock started falling down around them.

Sid fell after a large rock hit him in the back and rolled off. Tobey quickly helped him up. They ran on until they both fell at Kong Li's feet. He was laughing. They hated it when he was laughing. Tobey looked for Sue and pulled on Sid's arm to make him look. "Sue!"

"Guys help!" Sue was down on the tunnel floor, her legs under a pile of rock. Forgetting about Kong Li the boys both ran back to her. She had rocks large and small covering the length of her legs. It was the beginning of a pile that went nearly to the top of the tunnel. Sue was already trying to pull herself out using her hands but it wasn't working. Tobey started to dig her out, but she held up both arms "Just pull me out!"

The shape shifters obediently brought more of the explosive cubes to Kong Li. He unhurriedly took them and commanded the shifters to stay back, blocking the tunnel.

Sid and Tobey took her hands and pulled, but she didn't move and it actually seemed to hurt her. They both stopped pulling and started digging her out again. The more they moved off of her, more kept rolling down the pile. "Guys! Kong Li!" she yelled.

They looked and Kong Li had another fireball ready to send after them. He held out his hand pointing right at Sue! She covered her head and screamed at Tobey and Sid, "Guys Run! Get away!" Tobey and Sid were still shoveling rocks and dirt off of her with their hands.

"Like we would run and leave you here!" Sid scolded.

Kong Li sent the fireball out of his hand and it flew right at Sue's head!

"GUYS!" Sue screamed again, and since Sid was the only one she could reach, feebly tried to push him away. Tobey spun around on one knee with his hands held toward the approaching fireball. Without time to concentrate, he reacted from instinct and still focused enough to make the fireball curve to the right just enough that it missed all three of them.

The fireball was larger than the ones Tobey saw Kong Li use at the cliff and when it hit the rocks next to them it exploded with more force. Rock debris flew at them stinging their skin and they all covered their heads. It left a spot of red hot rock glowing next to Tobey.

"Tobey how did you that? You made it turn!" Sid was amazed, and distracted for a second. Tobey smiled and looked back at Kong Li. Sid snapped out of it and grabbed Sue's belt. Tobey grabbed both of her arms and they yanked together. She came out from under the pile of rock and more rock slid down in her place. "Ow-you guys-can girls get snuggies?"

Tobey ignored the snuggie comment and stepped in front of Sue protectively. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet. Sid got closer to Sue and Tobey and readied his fists.

Kong Li watched the three of them. "Aw, you are trying to get ready to defend yourselves - how cute."

"Well show you CUTE Kong Loser!" The three shape shifters moved closer, probably as cockroaches or something and suddenly appeared behind and on either side of Kong Li.

Sid challenged, "We will take that recipe back now Kong Li."

"No I don't think you will this time you rejects." Sid ran at Kong Li just as he ignited another fireball. Before he could send it from his hand, Sid tackled him. He fell back and Sid landed on top of him burning his hand. The pain made Sid inhale sharply and pull his hand back. The fireball shot the opposite way back into the cavern.

Sid held his burned hand to his stomach protectively as two of the shape shifters pulled him off of Kong Li. he flailed against them but they just bounce back after each hit. Once Sid was on his feet he struggled and managed to kick one. Tobey was running at him screaming at the shape shifter.

Kong Li jumped up with a flourish of his cape and brought the fireball back from mid-air in the cavern to send it back at his enemies.

Tobey stopped when he saw the fireball coming back and held his arms toward it. He frowned and turned his hands like he was trying to turn a heavy handle. The fireball changed its course and flew at Kong Li!

Sid flipped a shape shifter and jumped to Sue's side as she struck another in the face. "You ok?"

"Great!"

Kong Li waved the fireball away and it exploded somewhere in the cavern before he roared and ran at Tobey. He hit him with the end of his staff. Tobey rolled and came up on his feat out of the staff's reach. Kong Li sent another fireball at Tobey and he deflected it even at close range, but it went into the side of the cavern causing an explosion that threatened to trap them all in the tunnel.

Sid helped Sue get away from the shifters and they ran through the falling rock and dirt. Kong Li ran out without any thought for anyone but himself and Tobey was right behind him. He jumped over the shape shifter that Sid dropped first.

The shifter reached up with a tentacle like appendage and caught Tobey's foot. He screamed before he hit the ground and rolled over quickly to make the thing let go. Rocks and dirt were falling all around him as he pounded on the black rope-like thing that held his leg. Dirt fell like rain in the tunnel. Sid jumped back through it and delivered a punch straight down splitting the thing holding his friend. He grabbed Tobey and they ran back through the falling dirt just as several large chunks of rock fell.

No time to rest, Kong Li was near the center of the cavern near his throne already throwing multiple fireballs at them. Tobey yelled, "Run, I can't handle more than one at a time!" They ran toward what looked like another tunnel on the far side of the cavern.

Kong Li had such powerful control over the fireballs; he turned them all toward the tunnel they were obviously running for. Sid saw the fireballs were going to make it to the exit before they would and touched Sue's shoulder to stop her. They yelled at Tobey to stop. They watched the fireballs exploding against the tunnel entrance.

"Now how do we get out?" Tobey punched air.

"I guess we don't, I didn't want to leave without the recipe anyway." Sid got ready to fight, Sue right next to him.

Sid sounded braver than he felt. They were all shaking inside thinking about the prospect of getting hit straight on with a fireball. "If you got one coming at you try to focus on it to make it turn - I learned at the cliff when I fought him alone, we can control them as much as he can! He just has more experience.

There was a deep rumbling that sounded like it came from the other side of the blocked tunnel. The ground under their feet shook and they all looked around to see if the rest of the cavern was about to cave in, except Kong Li. Their enemy continued his charge and started sending the fireballs at them again.

"Oh man how much of this recipe did he make at once!" Sid yelled, not really expecting an answer. But Kong Li yelled back.

"Enough that I am positive it will last longer than you will."

While Kong Li was threatening them, they were rolling and jumping out of the way of multiple fireballs. There was one hot on Tobey's tail and he couldn't shake it. A brilliant sequence of cartwheels and back flips over large rocks and boulders resulted in the fireball slamming into the rocks just behind him! He kept on cartwheeling to get out of the way of the explosion and flying rocks.

Sue found herself trapped in a corner with one coming at her so she tried as Tobey instructed, to control it. She managed to slow it, instead of turn it and it went down and hit in front of her. She covered her head and pressed herself tightly into the space between two rocks in the corner. Tobey and Sid couldn't see through the dust and forgetting about Kong Li ran toward her to see if she was ok.

"Sue!"

"Sue!"

Sid and Tobey reached her at the same time and Tobey helped her out of the small space she had slipped her lean form into. Kong Li was delighted to have them back in one place and in a corner besides! Sid looked around to find out what Kong Li was doing just in time to see him release three very large fireballs at them. He yelled a warning and grabbed Sue to run down the wall at least he thought it would be good to get out of the corner.

Tobey followed them, but held his hand out, trying to turn at least one of them. Not watching where he was running proved to be a bad thing, and he fell. When he hit the rock floor, he cried out and Sue and Sid ran back to him. He rolled up on his side and used both hand to try and protect them.

Sue's voice screaming "Kai Shrey La!" was the last thing Kong Li heard before the explosions, and the huge cloud of dust they kicked up blocked his view from seeing the fate of his enemies. The explosion rocked the whole cavern and cracks ran in the rocks like a spider web out from where the explosions discharged.

Sue still had her hands in front of her blasting a sort of pathetic funnel of water against a large black surface that just appeared in front of her. The water sounded like a cow peeing on a flat rock. She heard something else, only in her mind, like telepathy. A deep calm voice said, "You know, dragons of my kind really don't like to be wet."

She stopped the water spell and looked up. The dragon had landed protectively over them like a mother hen protecting chicks. It deflected the fireballs away from them! Sid and Tobey opened their eyes too and saw the dragon had protected them. From behind them, Nana stepped around the dragon's folded wing, "Are you three ok?"

"Yes Nana, you have great timing." Sid observed.

"Yeah, another tiny fraction of a second and we would have been shrimp toast!" Tobey jumped up and hugged her.

The dust had also settled enough that Kong Li could see Nana was with his little enemies, and had brought some heavy artillery in the form of a dragon with her.

Kong Li roared at them, "How dare you! YOU-WILL-NOT-BEAT-ME!"

Kong Li sent more large fireballs at them - one right after another. The dragon wrapped his tail in front of them and guided them back under his belly with his wings. The dragon's wing began to glow with a purple sheen and when the fireballs hit it they bounced off harmlessly and went out.

The dragon blew a long intense flame back at Kong Li and made him take cover behind a pile of rocks. With a snort he directed a huge fireball of his own at the top of the cavern over Kong Li. Where his fireball hit the rock, it glowed an intense red before it started to crumble. The rocks and dirt fell on Kong Li this time, burying him.

"Wow! Awesome!" Tobey ran over and searched through the rubble for only six seconds before he plucked the recipe from between the rocks. With it in one hand he threw his arms up in victory and shouted, "Yes! We are the AWESOMEST!"

Beginning with a loud rumbling, and more rock falling around them, the cavern began caving in.

"We gotta get out of here!" Sid yelled and started running, waving the others to follow. He realized there was nowhere to run and no one was following him. Kong Li had already blocked both of the exits.

The others called to Sid to come back as they ran back under the dragon's wing. The great beast lowered his body as low as he could to let them climb on. Nana, Sue, Tobey and finally Sid had no trouble jumping up and he took off shooting across the cavern floor. before they got to the blocked tunnel entrance, a rock hit Tobey in the shoulder and almost knocked him off.

The only reason he didn't fall off was Sue's quick catch of his hand. Sid reached down and helped her pull him back up. Tobey pressed his forehead against Sue's back trying not to cry as he held his shoulder. Now there was another bruise, on top of the road rash and the burn! He cried out in anger and Sue reached back to find his hand. "Hang on Tobey, we'll get out of this!"

The dragon spit something that looked less like fire and more like red lightening at the rubble blocking the tunnel ahead. It blew it clear for a moment and the dragon folded his wings and shot into it like a missile. It caved in again behind him. His human passengers leaned forward to get as low as possible on his back as they shot through the narrow, and still caving in tunnel.

The next wall of stone was ahead and the dragon used his power to blast through it again. Just after they flew through it, the dragon lost momentum and hit the ground. He slid on his belly a ways before stopping. Nana landed gracefully on her feet. Sid Sue and Tobey landed less gracefully. The rocks still rained down around them.

"Nana! Is he ok?" Sue yelled while holding his great jaw with her hands to look in his eye. Nana didn't have to answer her, instead they all heard in their heads, "I am fine. Get under my wing again." They did as he instructed and watched as he blasted a large hole in the roof that let moonlight shine into the tunnel.

"Go! I will be fine." They didn't want to leave him, but Nana sternly instructed them to do what they were told and she kept them in front of her as they climbed out. They came out about fifty feet away from the hole behind the dumpster where they entered and Nana walked with them to find their bikes.

Sid spoke softly, "Tobey, are you ok to bike?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Here Nana." Tobey handed her the recipe and got on his bike. Nana thanked him and promised to meet them at home. It was not so much late as very early in the morning again. It would be sunrise soon.

He was pretty sure he could ride his bike with only one hand and it turned out he rode most of the way with no hands at all. He leaned back for a while and steered with his feet. He was thinking about getting home and hoping Mr. Wu wouldn't be in the kitchen yet.

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When they got home and parked their bikes in the garden, it started to rain. Tobey considered just staying outside with his bike anyway, but Sid saw him lingering by his bike and waited for him. "Come on Tobey, you'll freeze."

Tobey smiled and ran to catch up. When they went by the kitchen the light was on. They could see part of the kitchen through the glass in the door - designed so no one would run into each other as they entered and exited busily serving food. Only Wu's was never that busy. The window just made it handy to see where Mr. Wu was at all times. Sid saw Nana was in there with Sue and he started through the door to join them. He realized Tobey was sticking like glue to his back like he was trying to hid behind him.

"What are you doing Tobey?"

"Nothing!" he looked embarrassed but still stayed close when Sid went on in and stated to the others. "I don't know if I am hungrier, or more tired. Is there anything to eat?"

A booming loud voice answered him. "Of course there is something to eat! This is a restaurant isn't it?"

Tobey gasped like someone punched him in the stomach. Oh no, Mr. Wu's here! I should just go now. Tobey was too tired to deal with any more crap from Mr. Wu and turned to go up to his bed.

"Where are you going Tobey?" the loud threatening voice asked again.

"Up to my bed, for as long as it is my bed."

"Oh Tobey, you tease us. Aren't you hungry?"

"Well ya, but I don't work here anymore, you said only employees could eat free."

"Who said?"

"You said! About the same time you told me you didn't want me living here either."

"Don't you know when I'm kidding?" Mr. Wu looked embarrassed. He was still trying to avoid admitting he was totally wrong. But saying he was kidding made Tobey go from scared to angry.

"Kidding? That was kidding? It was mean - and I know you weren't 'kidding' you've never liked me." Tobey left the kitchen. Mr. Wu looked at Nana. "Mom?" she gave him a look that said it all, but mostly that he better follow Tobey fast. Sue would have run after him to, but she saw he wasn't leaving the building again.

Tobey was much faster than Mr. Wu and he didn't catch up until he got to the room Tobey shared with Sid. Tobey entered in such a hurry he forgot to shut the door. Mr. Wu peeked in, "Tobey? Can I come in your room?"

"It's not mine - you own it." Tobey was on his top bunk already, still in his clothes and facing the wall. He didn't want to look at Mr. Wu. When the yelling he expected started, he hoped he could block it out somehow. He expected to hear exactly how rough Mr. Wu planned to make it for him, since Nana wouldn't let him kick him out.

"Tobey I understand why you are angry with me. I wish I hadn't said those things I said. I didn't think I was being as hurtful as I was and I am sorry." Mr. Wu was standing next to the bunk bed with his fingers on the wooden frame that supported Tobey's mattress.

"You are? You're sorry?"

"Yes Tobey, I really am. I want you to stay and I want you to work for me again. I miss being able to yell at you."

"I'm not sure I missed it, but I am glad you will let me come back, but you scared the crap out of me! I thought my whole life was over! I don't want to leave! No matter what happens, please don't do that again, just kill me on the spot or don't give me shrimp - yell at me, but don't make me leave." Tobey had rolled over and by the time he stopped talking he was on his knees on his mattress. He even looked like he was begging.

"Alright Tobey, I promise. Can you work tomorrow?"

"YES!" Tobey somersaulted with a twist off his bunk, over Mr. Wu's head. He turned to watch him land. He landed perfectly on his feet and leapt forward again. He wrapped his arms as far as they would go around Mr. Wu's belly.

"Oh hoho. Glad to have you back!" cheering could be hear from the hallway. Nana, Sue and Sid were all standing in the hall and heard everything.

"You can work all day today if you like after you get some sleep, but tomorrow you will go back to school." Nana smiled so sweetly but still, their happy faces fell into frowns.

"Can you send me back with a note proving I was innocent?" Tobey was dreading going back.

"We will worry about after you have had some rest. There is a lot of shrimp fried rice downstairs if you want something to eat before your rest."

"I'm too tired to eat." Tobey jumped back up on his bunk like he wasn't tired. After he was up there he took off his shirt and kicked off his pants.

Sue squealed and said she was going to bed.

"Hey I got boxers on!" Tobey grinned. He could her Sue scolding him all the way to her room. "Crazy boy, just strippin' in front of me, what's wrong with him? I'll show him . . ."

Sid closed the door and turned out the light before he got undressed and fell into his bunk. They were all so tired they slept hard and soundly until eleven in the morning.

Tobey startled awake, sure Mr. Wu would yell at him his first day back. Thinking he would be fired again before he could even start, he pulled on the same clothes he had on before and ran to the kitchen. Sid hadn't even completely opened his eyes yet.

"Sorry Mr. Wu! It was Sid's fault - he didn't wake me up!"

"Tobey m' boy! Go sit in a booth and I will be right there with a feast to delight your senses. I have prepared your meal myself!"

Tobey's mouth fell open in disbelief and Barney had to move him along with a few pokes from the end of his crutches. He went all the way to the booth with him. He sat sideways on the bench across from Tobey with his cast up next to him. Barney reached down and pulled on his sock to give his toes some more room.

"Dad really does feel terrible - I've never seen him like this before! Some of his guilt over what he said to you is even coming my way. He made me my favorite breakfast this morning before I even got up and he told me I don't have to cut up the chicken or make the lemon sauce today!"

"That's great Barney." Sid came down and sat next to Tobey. Barney saw Sue coming and started to pull his leg down. She stopped him, lifted his foot gently for him and slid in under it, letting his cast and rest across her thighs.

"That feels nice um, with it elevated like that - are you sure it's ok?" Barney blushed, and Sue blushed when she told him his foot being in her lap was fine.

Mr. Wu really did serve them all a feast fit for a king and by the time they finished eating it looked like animals had eaten in that booth.

Tobey hurried to get it bussed before Mr. Wu came back out, but too late, Mr. Wu caught him trying to clean it up. He startled and dropped a bowl when he heard Mr. Wu coming.

"I'm sorry Mr. Wu - I'll clean this up! I'm sure I can glue the bowl back together." Tobey startled again and closed his eyes when he felt Mr. Wu's hand land on his sore shoulder.

Stop worrying Tobey! I will have this all cleaned up in a jiffy! Did you get enough rest? Are you sure I am not asking too much if I give you deliveries today?

"No Mr. Wu the more deliveries the better!" Tobey and everyone else in the booth watched in amazement as Mr. Wu gathered the first armload of dishes off the table and took them to the kitchen. Even after he left they sat in silence just staring at each other. They could even hear him in the kitchen singing to himself.

Sid and Tobey pulled themselves up to get the rest after he came out for his second load. There were still things left on the table even after the second load so they cleared it and followed Mr. Wu to the kitchen.

Sue started to rub Barney's foot! She acted like she really wasn't thinking about it. Like someone absentmindedly petting a cat that came to sit beside them, she rubbed the ball of his foot and the soft spot on top near his toes. Barney started to relax and purred like a kitten.

She stayed quiet afraid if she said anything he would get embarrassed and move. She got away with it for another few seconds, but Mr. Wu's call for deliveries came way too soon to suit her - and Barney wasn't happy about the interruption either. Sue observed, "At least for the first time, he asked nicely!

"Um . . . Thanks Sue! It feels better already!"

"Glad if I helped."

A busy day of deliveries began.

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Late afternoon Officer Lucas came in and sat in a booth. Nana joined him and they started talking quietly. Sid saw them on his way back out for another delivery and said "Hi" to Lucas. "How are you doing Sid? You look very well compared to how you looked last I saw you!"

"I'm feeling much better and Tobey is too! Thank you for all your help!"

"Glad to do it."

"Well, gotta deliver this - see you later!"

"See ya Sid."

Nana and Officer Lucas continued their conversation while Mr. Wu seemed to be happily doing everything himself. He cooked and even brought them extra napkins when he brought out the Officer's and Nana's diner.

[[[[[[[[Three Delivery]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

When they got back from their deliveries they sat in a booth and ate something before they went to bed. Nana told them she had already called school and told them they would be back. Thinking about it all night kept Tobey ether awake or talking in his sleep, but he only woke Sid up once when he screamed "I didn't do it!" Tobey didn't wake himself up screaming, but Sid lay awake for a long time wondering how they would get through their first day back at school.

They rode their bikes as usual and chained them up, but Tobey didn't want to leave his. Bad things happened to it and to him the last time he did. "Come on Tobey it will be ok they've all had a few days to hear what really happened, or completely forget about it. They will be bothering someone else by now."

"I hope so Sid. See ya Sue!" Sue jogged off eager to get back in to the work. She suspected they would have tons of catching up to do.

Sid walked with Tobey all the way to his class, and then went on to his. There was staring and whispering but Sid couldn't tell what it was about really. He hoped it was just because no one had seen them for a while.

When Sid, Sue and Tobey all got to their classes, each teacher had a newspaper and had made multiple copies of an article. All of the teachers in the school shared the article with each class. They passed it around saying that the police department had requested the information to be shared at the school. They were also given time to read it and offer any comments or caused quite a stirring especially in Tobey's class. Loud murmuring followed the reading of the short article. It explained how a student of their school named, Tobey, no last name, helped the police to apprehend a dangerous criminal and formally thanked him for his help in the matter. It even said they couldn't have done it without him!Nana, Barney and Mr. Wu watched a morning news report on TV that commended the local boy from Chinatown and his heroic they met for lunch they talked about it quietly and were interrupted frequently by classmates stopping by to congratulate him!There was one kid named Efron that had gotten to school late and didn't see the article. Expecting his friends to back him up, he laughed and booed when Tobey, Sid and Sue walked by him on their way out of the cafeteria. Dirk and his friends surrounded Efron and told him all about their school's hero! Dirk poked Efron in the chest and told him he better not hear about him ever giving Tobey any grief again.

"Wow! What a change that article caused. How do you suppose the news got hold of it?" they spent the rest of the day being asked what happened and being congratulated and when they got home, the dining room was full of people, including 12 uniformed police officers that cheered when they walked in.

"Yay Tobey!"

Sid and Sue actually looked a little down, "Hey, we helped you know!" Tobey put his arms around each of their necks and pulled them close.

"Of course you did - I couldn't have done it without you - but after all I am the coolest, the strongest and the handsomest!"

They both pulled back, and glared at him. Tobey quickly added, ". . . and you are the most awesome friends ever!"

[[[[[[[[Three Delivery]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

[end]


End file.
